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LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

OF 

HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

OF ILLINOIS. 




HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN 



o in m: A. I 1ST E. 



BOSTON: 
THAYER & ELDRIDGE 

114 AND 11G WASHINGTON STREET. 



c rv 

THE 



LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 



OF ILLINOIS. 



HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN, 



OF MAINE. 



BO STON: 
THAYER & ELDRIDGE, 

114 and 116 Washington Street. 

1860. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 

Thayer & Eld ridge, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts 



c /y 



Geo. C. Raxd & Ateey, Pbihtees, 3 Coenhill, Eostok. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Introductory — Abraham Lincoln 



CHAPTER I. 

Ancestors — Birth — Early Surroundings — Removal to Indiana — Edu- 
cation — Occupation — Settled in Illinois — Black Hawk War — Hu- 
morous Speech — Surveying — Letter of a Western Man 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Entrance into Public Life — Election to State Legislature — Presi- 
dential Elector — Election to Congress — Action there — Canvass of 
1848, etc. 23 

CHAPTER III. 

Private Life — 1854 — The Nebraska Bill Agitation in Illinois — Posi- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln — Speech at Peoria — Anti-Nebraska Convention 
Campaign — of 1856 ---- -.- --28 

CHAPTER IV. 

Republican Convention, 1858 — Nomination as Senator at Springfield — 
Speech of Acceptance — Challenge to Douglas — Correspondence 35 

CHAPTER V. 

Tho Senatorial Debate — Position of the Candidates — The Second De- 
bate at Freeport— Arguments of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas - 48 



TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Re-election of Mr. Douglas — Fraudulent Districting— Ohio Can- 
vass — Speeches by Mr. Lincoln, etc. ------ 89 

CHAPTER VII. 

Republican Convention — Preparations at Chicago — The "Wigwam — 
Enthusiasm — Organization — Speech of the President — Nomina- 
tions Ballotings — Choice of Lincoln — Vice-President — Hamlin, 

etc. - - 91 



Introductory — Hannibal Hamlin ------- 105 

CHAPTER I . 

Date of Birth — Profession — Political Faith — Entrance to Public 
Life — Election to State Legislature, etc. ----- 107 

CHAPTER II. 

Return Home — State Legislature Election to the United States Sen- 
ate — Admission of Oregon — Compromise of 1850 — Mr. Hamlin's 
Votes— The Nebraska Bill— Abandonment of the Democratic Party- 
Election as Governor — Return to the Senate, etc. - - - 109 

CHAPTER III. 

United States Senate — The Lecompton Contest— Mr. Hamlin's Posi- 
tion — " Mudsills "— Answer to Senator Hammond, of S. C. — The 
Laborers of the North nl 

CHAPTER IV. 

Nomination as Vice-President — Mr. Hamlin's Experience fits him for 
the position— Acceptance of Nomination— Public Serenade at Wash- 
ington — Disturbance, etc. -------- 124 



TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 



APPENDIX. 

Speeches of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, of Illinios - - _ 129 
Squatter Sovereignty and its FALLAciEs-Chicago Speech, July 

10, 1858 - 

-, ' " - 131 

Present Position of the Slavery Question -Springfield Speech, July 
17, 1S58 ----___ " 

Governmental Control 'of the Territories *. Squatter Sovereignty- 
Columbus (Ohio) Speech, September, 1859 - _ _ 177 
Ohio and Kentucky, or the Two Systems-Speech at Cincinnati - 210 
National Politics and the Republican Party- Speech at New York, 

February 28, 1860 

The Illinois Senatorial Canvass - Extracts from Mr. Lincoln's 
Speeches at Galesburg, Alton, etc. - 0CA 

MR. LINCOLN IN CONGRESS- Mexican War -Resolution" of 
Inquiry - 

x J -------- 298 

Soldier's Bounty - 

J ' 300 

The Public Lands -----_-_ 

Slavery in the District of Columbia 

o(J4 
Eights of Naturalized Citizens - ______ 3Q7 

Lincoln Vote in 1858 --_____ 

Speech of Hon. Hannibal Hamlin— Democracy _ _ 311 

Letters of Acceptance -----___ 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The Republican Party, by its National Nominating Con- 
vention, at Chicago, on Friday, May 18, placed before the Ameri- 
can people these two, Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, and 
Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, the latter one of the United 
States Senators from that State, as its candidates for President 
and Vice-President of this Republic. The nominations have 
additional interest at this particular period. Besides the fact 
that they are thus made the standard-bearers of the most vigorous 
political organization in the nation, there is also to be taken into 
account the manifold dissensions of their adversaries, which would 
seem to point the way to a certain Republican victory at the elec- 
tion in November next. 

Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, is a genuine scion of the "West- 
land," and may therefore fairly be regarded as a representative 
man. Born on the " dark and bloody ground " of Kentucky, he 
was " raised " in Illinois, being brought to that then Territory at a 
period when the foot of the white man had barely begun to tread 
its magnificent prairies. 

With very limited opportunities of receiving an education, 
but much of that genial humor and quick sense of observation and 
appreciation, which is especially characteristic of our Western 
Pioneers, Abraham Lincoln stands to-day not only a represen- 
tative of the early Western stock, the hunter, farmer, and pioneer, 
but an admirable example of what energy and ability can do for a 
man honestly using them in honorable pursuits. 

Not only in character but in person, is Abraham Lincoln a 
type of the West. Tall and loose-jointed, with large bones, the 
person of the futura Iloosier President will attract attention every- 
where. 



8 INTRODUCTORY 

In personal appearance, Mr. Lincoln, or, as he is more familiarly 
termed among those who know him best, " Honest Abe," is long, 
lean, and wiry. In motion, he has a good deal of the elasticity 
and awkwardness which indicate the rough training of his early 
life, and his conversation savors strongly of Western idioms and 
pronunciation. His height is six feet three inches. His complexion 
is about that of an octoroon ; his face, without being by any 
means beautiful, is genial looking, and good-humor seems to lurk in 
every corner of its innumerable angles. He has dark hair, tinged 
with gray ; a good forehead ; small eyes ; a long, penetrating nose, 
with nostrils such as Napoleon always liked to find in his best 
generals, because they indicated a long head and clear thoughts ; 
and a mouth which, aside from being of magnificent proportions, 
is probably his most expressive feature. 

As a speaker, he is ready, precise, and fluent. His manner 
before a popular assembly is as he pleases to make it, being either 
superlatively ludicrous, or very impressive. He employs but little 
gesticulation, but, when he desires to make a point, produces a 
shrug of his shoulders, an elevation of his eyebrows, a depression of 
his mouth, and a general distortion of countenance, so comically 
awkward that it never fails to " bring down the house." His 
enunciation is slow and emphatic, and his voice, though sharp and 
powerful, at times has a frequent tendency to dwindle into a shrill 
and unpleasant sound: but, as before stated, the peculiar character- 
istic of his manner is the remarkable mobility of his features, the 
frequent contortions of which excite a merriment his words could 
not produce. 

The Boston Transcript published the following in its issue of 
October 13, 1858. It describes Mr. Lincoln's appearance in the 
debate with Mr. Douglas, at Galesburg, Illinois, October 7, of the 
same year. The letter was written by the president of a college in 
that State, — a gentleman well known in New England, and 
particularly esteemed in Boston. After stating the reception of 
the rival champions of the two parties, this correspondent con- 
tinued : — 

" The men are entirely dissimilar. Mr. Douglas is a thick-set, 
finely-built, courageous man, and has an air of self-confidence that 
does not a little to inspire his supporters with hope. Mr. Lincoln, 
is a tall, lank man, awkward, apparently diffident, and, when not 
speaking, has neither firmness in his countenance, nor fire in his 
eye 



AND PERSONAL. 

" Mr. Lincoln has a rich, silvery voice, enunciates with great, 
distinctness, and lias a fine command of language. He commenced 
by a review of the points Mr. Douglas had made. In this he 
showed great tact, and his retorts, though gentlemanly, were sharp, 
and reached to the core of the subject in dispute. While he gave 
but little time to the work of review, we did not feel that anything 
was omitted which deserved attention. 

" He then proceeded to defend the Republican party. Here he 
charged Mr. Douglas with doing nothing for freedom ; with disre- 
garding the rights and interests of the colored man ; and, for about 
forty minutes, he spoke with a power that we have seldom heard 
equalled. There was a grandeur in his thoughts, a comprehensive- 
ness in his arguments, and a binding force in his conclusions, which 
were perfectly irresistible. The vast throng were silent as death ; 
every eye was fixed upon the speaker, and all gave him serious 
attention. He was the tall man eloquent ; his countenance glowed 
with animation, and his eye glistened with an intelligence that 
made it lustrous. He was no longer awkward and ungainly, but 
graceful, bold, commanding." 

" Honest old Abe," as Mr. Lincoln is commonly called by the 
great masses of the people of the " Prairie State," is decidedly a 
man to win upon the popular heart by the sturdy manliness of his 
character, and the simple integrity and straight forward logic of 
his political opinions. The genuine though not reverential instincts 
of the Western people have fixed upon the Republican candi- 
date an expressive, if not euphonious title, which is in decided con- 
trast with the reputation an '•' old public functionary " will carry 
with him into a dishonored retirement. In one respect the name 
Is a misnomer, as " Honest Abe " is by no means " old ; " he being 
fifty-one years of age, and in the bloom of full and vigorous 
manhood. 

Mr. Lincoln is by profession a lawyer, in which pursuit he has 
won a position and reputation at the Illinois bar second to none. 
His mind is eminently legal ; as an advocate, he is clear, cogent, 
and logical ; understands how to control a jury, and always pre- 
sents himself well fortified in the legal points of any case he may 
undertake. 

As a politician, he has always acted with the moderate Whigs of 
the Henry Clay school, and since the former parties of the country 
committed themselves fully to the interests of the JSlave Propa- 



10 INTRODUCTORY 

ganda, he lias been found working -with the party of free labor, 
Though decidedly opposed to slavery, as the speeches inserted in 
these pages show, Mr. Lincoln would not be classed as a radical 
Republican. His opposition to the "peculiar institution" seems 
rather to be based upon the politico-economical view of the subject 
than upon the moral grounds, though he by no means shirks that 
most important element of the question. The charge of desiring 
" negro equality," which would have been trumpeted against Mr. 
Seward, cannot be charged on Mr. Lincoln. He has distinctly 
stated his opposition to the exercise of suffrage, &c, by the Anglo- 
Africans of this continent. In this respect, he represents the 
average sentiment of the people among whom he lives. 

Mr. Lincoln is one of the most effective of " stump speakers." 
He understands well how to move the hearts of a people more 
powerfully affected and controlled by the fiery eye, the working 
features, the speaking tongue, and the many magnetic elements 
which go to make up the orator, than possibly any other people 
on the face of the earth. " Honest old Abe " has the qualities of 
earnestness, enthusiasm, evident sincerity, large knowledge of men, 
quick perception of the humorous, and a ready application of his 
faculties to the surrounding circumstances. All these make him a 
powerful and popular speaker of the Western school. 

Of the people, — sprung from their loins, proud of his origin, 
having carved out for himself his own fortune, — the whilom Hat- 
boatman, farmer, clerk, storekeeper, captain of volunteers, serving 
gallantly in the Black Hawk War of 1832 ; the rising lawyer, active 
politician, and prominent leader of his party for many years, — the 
name, history, and character of Abraham Lincoln has in it many 
of the qualities that will stir the enthusiasm, and bring out the 
hardy masses of freemen, throughout the whole of the Northern 
and border States. 

The Chicago Press and Tribune gives the following interesting 
particulars relative to the personnel of Mr. Lincoln. This journal 
being the leading Republican paper of the Northwest, and of 
Illinois in particular, its statements are worthy of notice, as coming 
from those speaking as with authority. The description of his 
person, and account of his habits, are especially interesting. 

" Mr. Lincoln stands six feet four inches high in his stockings. 
His frame is not muscular, but gaunt and wiry ; his arms are long, 
but not unreasonably so for a person of his height; his lower limbs 



AND PERSONAL. ll 

are not disproportioncd to his body. In walking, Lis gait, though 
firm, is never brisk. He steps slowly and deliberately, almost 
always with his head inclined forward, and his hands clasped 
behind his back. In matters of dress, he is by no means precise. 
Always clean, he is never fashionable ; he is careless, but not 
slovenly. In manner, he is remarkably cordial, and, at the same 
time, simple. His politeness is always sincere, but never elaborate 
and oppressive. A warm shake of the hand, and a warmer smile 
of recognition, are his methods of greeting his friends. At rest, his 
features, though those of a man of mark, are not such as belong to 
a handsome man ; but when his fine dark-gray eyes are lighted up 
by any emotion, and his features begin their play, he would be 
chosen from among a crowd as one who had in him not only the 
kindly sentiments which women love, but the heavier metal of 
which full-grown men and presidents are made. His hair is black, 
and, though thin, is wiry. His head sits well on his shoulders, but, 
beyond that, it defies description. It nearer resembles that of 
Clay than Webster ; but it is unlike either. It is very large, and, 
phrenologically, well proportioned, betokening power in all its 
developments. A slightly Roman nose, a wide-cut mouth, and a 
dark complexion, with the appearance of having been weather- 
beaten, complete the description. 

" In his personal habits, Mr. Lincoln is as simple as a child. He 
loves a good dinner, and eats with the appetite which goes with a 
great brain ; but his food is plain and nutritious. He never drinks 
intoxicating liquors of any sort, not even a glass of wine. He is 
not addicted to tobacco in any of its shapes. He never was accused 
of a licentious act in all his life. He never uses profane language. 
He never gambles ; we doubt if he ever indulges in any games of 
chance. He is particularly cautious about incurring pecuniary 
obligations for any purpose whatever ; and, in debt, he is never 
content until the score is discharged. We presume he ows no man 
a dollar. He never speculates. The rage for the sudden acquisi- 
tion of wealth never took hold of him. His gains from his piot'es- 
sion have been moderate, but sufficient for his purposes. 'While 
others have dreamed of gold, he has been in pursuit of knowledge. 
In all his dealings, he has the reputation of being generous but 
exact, and, above all, religiously honest. He would be a bold man 
who would say that Abraham Lincoln ever wronged any one out of 
a cent, or ever spent a dollar that he had not honestly earned. 



12 INTRODUCTORY AND PERSONAL. 

His struggles in early life have made him careful of money, but lus 
generosity with his own is proverbial. He is a regular attendant 
upon religious worship, and, though not a communicant, is a pew- 
holder and liberal supporter of the Presbyterian Church in Spring- 
field, to which Mrs. Lincoln belongs. He is a scrupulous teller of 
the truth, — too exact in his notions to suit the atmosphere of 
Washington as it now is. His enemies may say that he tells Black 
Republican lies ; but no man ever charged that, in a professional 
capacity, or as a citizen dealing with his neighbors, he would 
depart from the scriptural command. At home, he lives like a 
gentleman of modest means and simple tastes. A good-sized house 
of wood, simply but tastefully furnished, surrounded by trees and 
flowers, is his own, and there he lives, at peace with himself, the 
idol of his family, and, for his honesty, ability, and patriotism, the 
admiration of his countrymen. 

"If Mr. Lincoln is elected President, he will carry but little that 
is ornamental to the White House. The country must accept his 
sincerity, his ability, and his honesty in the mould in which they 
are cast. He will not be able to make as polite a bow as Frank 
Pierce, but he will not commence anew the agitation of the slavery 
Question by recommending to Congress any Kansas-Xebraska biils. 
Tie may not preside at the Presidential dinners with the ease and 
grace which distinguish the "venerable public functionary," Mr. 
Buchanan ; but he will not create the necessity for a Covode Com- 
mittee, and the disgraceful revelations of Cornelius Wendell. He 
will take to the Presidential chair just the qualities which the 
country now demands to save it from impending destruction, — 
ability that no man can question, firmness that nothing can over- 
bear, honesty that never has been impeached, and patriotism that 
never despairs." 



LIFE AND PUBLIC SEEYICES 

OF 

HON. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



CHAPTER I. 

Ancestors — Birth — Early Surroundings — Removal to Indiana — Education 
— Occupation — Settled in Illinois — Blaek Ilawk War, etc. 

The ancestors of Abraham Lincoln were of the good old 
stock by whom the State of Pennsylvania was founded. Mem- 
bers of the Society of Friends, they lived in Berks County, 
Pennsylvania, and emigrated from thence to Rockingham 
County, Virginia. In 1781-2, the paternal grandfather of 
Mr. Lincoln removed to Kentucky, where a year or two later 
he was killed by the Indians. Descendants from the same 
stock still live in the eastern part of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, in Harden Coun- 
ty, Kentucky. He is consequently now in the fifty-first year 
of his life. The early impressions of his childhood were formed 
amid the wilderness scenes of Kentucky, and among the rude, 
yet large-hearted men who were the pioneers of those days. 

In 181G, when the subject of this memoir was about seven 
years of age, his parents removed with him to Spencer County, 
in the Territory of Indiana. Those of the present generation 
have but little idea of the character and surround in <rs of the 
"Western people at that early period. The vast continental area, 
now covered with populous States, teeming with civilization 
and its results, blooming with cultivation, and blossoming 
beneath the busy brain and toiling hand of American industry, 
was then but a wide expanse of unknown prairie, whose far-off 



14 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

western horizon was supposed to clip its blue circle beyond the 
impassable American desert ; long the bugbear of travellers, 
and now the exploded chimera of ignorant geographers. At 
this early period, the refining, educating influences of modern 
society were unknown. The preachers, what few there were, 
were mostly like the congregation, — uncultured backwoods- 
men, whose rude eloquence was yet well fitted to uplift the 
mind of their uneducated hearers. Schools were even less fre- 
quent than the opportunities for religious instruction. 

It was among such influences as these that our young pioneer 
grew up to carve out for himself a distinguished manhood. Mr. 
Lincoln barely received the rudimentary elements of a common 
English education. Probably six months will cover the whole 
period spent by him within the rude log walls of the schoolhouso 
of the paternal settlement. Endowed with quick faculties, 
ambition, and energy, the youth of Mr. Lincoln was not lost in 
idleness, or wasted in vain pursuits. 

He remained in Indiana until 1830, working on the home 
farm, or engaged in other arduous occupations. During the 
period of youth and early manhood, he labored industriously, 
losing no opportunity of cultivating his mind, whether working 
on the farm, or drifting on the flat-boat down the Mississippi 
River. 

In 1830, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Lincoln removed to 
Macon County, Illinois. Here he remained for about a year, 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. At this period, he hired 
himself out to the neighboring farmers, and it is told of him that 
he mauled and split a large quantity of rails. During the sitting 
of the Republican Convention, much amusement was excited by 
the introduction of a banner supported by two worm-eaten rails, 
and inscribed as part of a lot of 3,000 made by Abraham Lin- 
coln, in 1830, for a farmer in Macon County. 

Mr. Lincoln removed to New Salem, then in Sagamore, now 
Chenard County, where he remained about one year. He was 
principally employed as a clerk in a store. Mr. Lincoln, in the 
first of his celebrated debates with Judge Douglas, held at 



OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 15 

Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858, alluded to this period of 
Lis life, in reply to this, Judge Douglas epitomized a history of 
Mr. Lincoln. 

"In the remarks I have made on this platform, and the 
position of Mr. Lincoln upon it, I mean nothing personally dis- 
respectful or unkind to that gentleman. I have known him for 
nearly twenty-five years. There were many points of sympathy 
between us when we first got acquainted. We were both com- 
paratively boys, and both struggling with poverty in a strange 
land. I was a school-teacher in the town of Winchester, and 
he a flourishing grocery-keeper in the town of Salem. He was 
more successful in his occupation than I was in mine, and hence 
more fortunate in this world's goods. Lincoln is one of those pecu- 
liar men who perform with admirable skill everything which they 
undertake. I made as good a school-teacher as I could, and when 
a cabinet maker, I made a good bedstead and tables, although 
my old boss said I succeeded better with bureaus and secretaries 
than with anything else ; but I believe that Lincoln was always 
more successful in business than I, for his business enabled him 
to get into the legislature. I met him there, however, and had 
a sympathy with him, because of the up-hill struggle we both 
had in life. He was then just as good at telling an anecdote 
as now. He could beat any of the boys wrestling, or running 
a footrace, in pitching quoits or tossing a copper ; could ruin 
more liquor than all the boys of the town together, and the dig- 
nity and impartiality with which he presided at a horserace or 
fist-fight, excited the admiration and won the praise of every- 
body that was present and participated. I sympathized with 
him, because he was struggling with difficulties, and so was I. 
Mr. Lincoln served with me in the legislature in 183G, when 
we both retired, and he subsided, or became submerged, and he 
was lost sight of as a public man for some years. In 1846, 
when Wilmot introduced his celebrated proviso, and the 
Abolition tornado swept over the country, Lincoln again turned 
up as a member of Congress from the Sangamon District. I 
was then in the Senate of the United States, and was glad to 



10 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

welcome my old friend and companion. Whilst in Congress, ho 
distinguished himself by his opposition to the Mexican war, 
taking the side of the common enemy against his own country ; 
and when he returned home he found that the indignation of 
the people followed him everywhere, and he was again sub- 
merged or obliged to retire into private life, forgotten by his 
former friends. He came up again in 1854, just in time to 
make his Abolition or Black Republican platform, in company 
with Giddings, Lovejoy, Chase, and Fred Douglass, for the Re- 
publican party to stand upon." 

Mr. Lincoln answered as follows : — 

The judge is wofully at fault about his early friend Lincoln 
being a "grocery-keeper." I don't know as it would be a 
great sin, if I had been ; but he is mistaken. Lincoln never 
kept a grocery anywhere in the world. It is true that Lincoln 
did work the latter part of one winter in a little still-house, up 
at the head of a hollow. And so I think my friend, the Judge, 
is equally at fault when he charges me, at the time when I was 
in Congress, of having opposed our soldiers who were fighting 
in the Mexican war. The judge did not make his charge very 
distinctly, but I can tell you what he can prove, by referring to 
the record. You remember I was an old Whig, and whenever 
the Democratic party tried to get me to vote that the war had 
been righteously begun by the President, I would not do it. But 
whenever they asked for any money or land-warrants, or any- 
thing to pay the soldiers there, during all that time, I gave the 
same vote that Judge Douglas did. You can think as you 
please as to whether that was consistent. Such is the truth ; and 
the Judo-e has the right to make all he can out of it. But when 
he, by a general charge, conveys the idea that I withheld sup- 
plies from the soldiers who were fighting in the Mexican war, 
or did anything else to hinder the soldiers, he is, to say the 
least, grossly and altogether mistaken, as a consultation of the 
records will prove to him. 

The Black Hawk Indian war broke out at this time. The 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 17 

violence with which it raged for a period of ten months, created 
great excitement among the settlers. A company of volunteers 
■was raised in New Salem, of which Abraham Lincoln was elected 
captain. He must have made his mark at this early date among 
his associates to have been raised to this post of confidence. 
The war terminated by the capture of Black Hawk, the Indian 
chief, and the total defeat of his warriors in August, 1832. 

Mr. Lincoln, many years after, during his congressional 
career thus humorously alluded to his campaigning services. 

" By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I was a military 
hero ? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, 
bled, and came away. Speaking of Gen. Cass's career, reminds 
me of my own. I was not at Sullivan's defeat, but I was about 
as near to it as Cass was to Hull's surrender ; and like him I 
saw the place soon after. It is quite certain that I did not 
break my sword, for I had none to break ; but I bent my 
musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, 
the idea is, he broke it in desperation. I bent the musket by 
accident. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking 
whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon the 
wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more 
than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the 
mosquitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of blood, I 
certainly can say, I was often very hungry." 

This campaign cost a number of valuable lives, and the gov- 
ernment over two million dollars. Like most of the wars and 
difficulties with Indian tribes, the conduct of the whites will 
not bear close inspection. The difficulties were mainly caused 
by dispossession of the lands from their aboriginal occupants. 
A portion of Black Hawk's tribe, the Sacs, under Keokuk, a 
chief friendly to the whites, sold all their lands cast of the Mis- 
sissippi. Black Hawk refused to move, anil this was the primary 
cause of the war. There is but little doubl but that the Indian 
chief was at this time the leading spirit in a projected general 
attack by the Indians from Texas to the northern Mississippi, 
upon the frontier settlements of the United States. 
2 



18 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

It was generally believed that such a plan was formed. The 
capture of the leader, Black Hawk, put an end to all hopes of 
the kind, entertained by the native tribes. Black Hawk was 
taken to Washington, and after being kept prisoner at Fort 
Munroe for some months, was set at liberty by order of the 
President, General Jackson. 

When Mr. Lincoln returned to Sangamon County, he learned 
the art of surveying, and prosecuted that profession until the 
financial crash of 1837 destroyed the value of real estate and 
ruined the business, — the result of which was that Lincoln's 
surveying apparatus was sold on an execution by the sheriff. 
Nothing daunted by this turn of ill-luck, he directed his atten- 
tion to the law, and borrowing a few books from a neighbor, 
which he took from the office in the evening and returned in the 
morning, he learned the rudiments of the profession in which 
he has since become so distinguished, by the light of a fire- 
place ! 

The Cleveland Leader publishes the following touching 
events in the life of Abraham Lincoln, which is so interesting 
as illustrative of a noble character, that it is inserted herewith. 

"As a western man, I wish space to give vent to my enthu- 
siasm over the nomination of Hon. Abraham Lincoln, for 
President of the United States. Mr. Lincoln, or ' Old Abe,' 
as his friends familiarly call him, is a self-made man. A Ken- 
tuckian by birth, he emigrated to Illinois in his boyhood, where 
he earned his living at the anvil, devoting his leisure hours to 
study. Having chosen the law as his future calling, he devoted 
himself assiduously to its mastery, contending at every step with 
adverse fortune. During this period of study, he found a 
home under the hospitable roof of one Armstrong, a farmer 
who lived in a loghouse some eight miles from the village of 
Petersburg, Menard County. Here, clad in homespun, with 
elbows out, and knees covered with patches, young Lincoln 
would master his lessons by the fire-light of the cabin, and then 
walk to town for the purpose of recitation. This man Arm- 
strong was himself poor, but he saw the genius struggling in 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 19 

the young student, and opened to him his rude home, and bade 
him welcome to his coarse fare. How Lincoln graduated with 
promise, — how he has more than fulfilled that promise, — 
how honorably he acquitted himself alike on the battle-field, in 
defendinc; our border settlements against the ravages of savage 
foes, and in the halls of our national legislature, arc matters of 
history, and need no repetition here. But one little incident of 
a more private nature, standing as it does as a sort of sequel 
to some things already alluded to, I deem worthy of record. 

" Some few years since the oldest son of Mr. Lincoln's old 
friend Armstrong, the chief support of his widowed mother, — 
the good old man having some time previously passed from 
earth, — was arrested on the charge of murder. A young man 
had been killed during a riotous melee, in the night time, at a 
camp-meeting, and one of his associates stated that the death- 
wound was inflicted by young Armstrong. A preliminary ex- 
amination was gone into, at which the accuser testified so posi- 
tively, that there seemed no doubt of the guilt of the prisoner^ 
and therefore he was held for trial. As is too often the case, 
the bloody act caused an undue degree of excitement in the 
public mind. Every improper incident in the life of the pris- 
oner, — each act which bore the least semblance of rowdyism, — 
each school-boy quarrel, — was suddenly remembered and mag- 
nified, until they pictured him as a fiend of the most horrible 
hue. As these rumors spread abroad, they were received as 
gospel truth, and a feverish desire for vengeance seized upon 
the infatuated populace, whilst only prison bars prevented a 
horrible death at the hands of a mob. The events were herald- 
ed in the county papers, painted in highest colors, accompanied 
by rejoicing over the certainty of punishment being meted out 
to the guilty party. The prisoner, overwhelmed by the cir- 
cumstances under which he found himself placed, fell into a 
melancholy condition, bordering upon despair; and the widowed 
mother, looking through her tears, saw no cause for hope from 
earthly aid. 

14 At this juncture, the widow received a letter from Mr. Lin- 



20 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

coin, volunteering his services in an effort to save the youth 
from the impending stroke. Gladly was his aid accepted, al- 
though it seemed impossible for even his sagacity to prevail in 
such a desperate case ; but the heart of the attorney was in his 
work, and he set about it with a will that knew no such word as 
fail. Feeling that the poisoned condition of the public mind 
was such as to preclude the possibility of impanelling an impar- 
tial jury in the court having jurisdiction, he procured a change 
of venue and a postponement of the trial. He then went 
studiously to work unravelling the history of the case, and 
satisfied himself that his client was the victim of malice, and 
that the statements of the accuser were a tissue of falsehoods. 

"When the trial was called on, the prisoner, pale and emaci- 
ated, with hopelessness written on every feature, and accom- 
panied by his half-hoping, half-despairing mother, — whose only 
hope was in a mother's belief of her son's innocence, in the 
justice of the God she worshipped, and in the noble counsel, 
who, without the hope of fee or reward upon earth, had under- 
taken the cause, — took his seat in the prisoner's box, and with 
a ' stony firmness ' listened to the reading of the indictment. 
Lincoln sat quietly by, whilst the large auditory looked on him 
as though wondering what he could say in defence of one whose 
guilt they regarded as certain. The examination of the wit- 
nesses for the State was begun, and a well-arranged mass of 
evidence, circumstantial and positive, was introduced, which 
seemed to impale the prisoner beyond the possibility of extrac- 
tion. The counsel for the defence propounded but few ques- 
tions, and those of a character which excited no uneasiness on 
the part of the prosecutor, — merely, in most cases, requiring 
the main witnesses to be definite as to the time and place. 
When the evidence of the prosecution was ended, Lincoln in- 
troduced a few witnesses to remove some erroneous impressions 
in regard to the previous character of his client, who, though 
somewhat rowdyish, had never been known to commit a vicious 
act ; and to show that a greater degree of ill-feeling existed 
between the accuser and the accused, than the accuser and the 
deceased. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 21 

" The prosecutor felt that the case was a clear one, ard his 
opening speech was brief and formal. Lincoln arose, while a 
deathly silence pervaded the vast audience, and in a clear and 
moderate tone began his argument. Slowly and carefully ho 
reviewed the testimony, pointing out the hitherto unobserved 
discrepancies in the statements of the principal witness. That 
which had seemed plain and plausible, he made to appear 
crooked as a serpent's path. The witness had stated that the 
affair took place at a certain hour in the evening, and that, by 
the aid of the brightly shining moon he saw the prisoner inflict 
the death-blow with a slung-shot. Mr. Lincoln showed that at. 
the hour referred to, the moon had not yet appeared above the 
horizon, and consequently the whole tale was a fabrication. 

"An almost instantaneous change seemed to have been wrought 
in the minds of his auditors, and the verdict of ' not guilty,' 
was at the end of every tongue. But the advocate *vas not 
content with .this intellectual achievement. His whole being 
had for months been bound up in this work of gratitude and 
mercy, and, as the lava of the overcharged crater bursts from 
its imprisonment, so great thoughts and burning words leaped 
forth from the soul of the eloquent Lincoln. He drew a picture 
of the perjurer so horrid and ghastly that the accuser could sit 
under it no longer, but reeled and staggered from the court- 
room, whilst the audience fancied they could see the brand upon 
his brow. Then in words of thrilling pathos Lincoln appealed 
to the jurors as fathers of sons who might become fatherless, 
and as husbands of wives who might be widowed, to yield to 
no previous impressions, no ill-founded prejudice, but to do his 
client justice ; and as he alluded to the debt of gratitude which 
he owed the boy's sire, tears were seen to fall from many eyes 
unused to weep. 

" It was near night when he concluded by saying that if justice 
was clone — as he believed it would be — before the sun should 
set, it would shine upon his client a free man. Tho jury re- 
tired, and the court adjourned for the day. Half an hour had 
not elapsed, when, as the oilicers of the court and the volunteer 



22 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

attorney sat at the tea-table of tbeir hotel, a messenger announced 
that the jury had returned to their seats. All repaired imme- 
diately to the court-house, and whilst the prisoner was being 
brought from the jail, the court-room was filled to overflowing 
with citizens of the town. When the prisoner and his mother 
entered, silence reigned as completely as though the house 
were empty. The foreman of the jury, in answer to the usual 
inquiry from the court, delivered the verdict of ' Not Guilty ! ' 
The widow dropped into the arms of her son, who lifted her up 
and told her to look upon him as before, free and innocent. 
Then, with the words, • Where is Mr. Lincoln ? ' he rushed 
across the room and grasped the hand of his deliverer, whilst 
his heart was too full for utterance. Lincoln turned his eyes 
toward the West, where the sun still lingered in view, and then, 
turning to the youth, said, ' It is not yet sundown, and you are 
free.' I confess that my cheeks were not wholly unwet by 
tears, and I turned from the affecting scene. As I cast a glance 
behind, I saw Abraham Lincoln obeying the divine injunction, 
by comforting the widowed and the fatherless." 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 23 



CHAPTER II. 

Entrance into Tublic Life — Election to State Legislature — Presidential Elec- 
tor — Election to Congress — Action therein, etc. 

Mr. Lincoln early identified himself with the Whig party, 
and was long a disciple and admirer of " Harry of the West." 
Ho belongs by character and association to that school of mod- 
crate, conservative men, who sought the peaceful extinction of 
the slave system by the gradually ameliorating influences of ad- 
vancing sentiment and civilization. When the party with which 
he had so long acted was fully handed over to the will of the 
Slave Power, Mr. Lincoln, like Mr. Seward and others, tried to 
save it from complete destruction. Failing this, he was found 
among the first to work for the formation of a new organization, 
which should direct the uprising waves of public feeling on the 
subject of slavery aggressions. 

After Mr. Lincoln's return, in 1832, from the Black Hawk 
campaign, he became a candidate for the State legislature, 
but was defeated. 

In 1834, he was returned to the legislature by his party, and 
served for the next six years in the lower house, running the 
gauntlet of three elections and succeeding in each. In 1836, 
Mr. Douglas was returned to the legislature and sat on the 
Democratic side of the House. Here commenced that personal 
as well as political rivalry which still continues between these 
two eminent men. 

At this period the fever of speculation wtos at its height 
throughout the West. A magnificent scheme of internal im- 
provement was projected for Illinois. The credit of the State 
was beginning to stagger under its erroneous banking system, 



24 LIFE AXD PUBLIC SERVICES 

and the debts incurred to carry forward the projected canals 
and railroad. Mr. Lincoln was in favor of internal improve- 
ments, but his course was marked by judicious approval of 
plans well matured, likely to benefit the State and increase 
its prosperity. 

Mr. Lincoln took up his residence at Springfield, the capitol 
of the State, and engaged in the practice of the law. He hao 1 
studied during his first legislative term, and was admitted to 
the bar. He soon became a prominent and successful advocate. 

The diligent attention necessary to secure success in his 
chosen profession did not prevent him from taking an active 
part in both local and national politics. He soon became one 
of the recognized leaders of the Whig party in the Northwest, 
and was placed on the Harrison and Clay electoral tickets in the 
Presidential campaigns of 1S40 and 1814. In the latter can- 
vass he took the stump for Henry Clay, and made a tour of Illi- 
nois, advocating his claim, to the Presidency. 

He was elected in 1846 to the popular branch of the national 
Congress, from the central district of Illinois. The State leg- 
islature was Democratic, and at the same time Mr. Douglas 
was elected to the United States Senate. Mr. Lincoln took 
his seat in the Thirtieth Congress, in Dec, J 817. James K. 
Polk was President when Mr. Hamlin, at this session, first took 
}ils seat as Senator from Maine. He then acted with the 
Democratic party. The Mexican war was being waged. Much 
opposition existed to the administration on account thereof. The 
election as Speaker, by the House of representatives, of Robert 
C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, showed the President and Cab- 
inet to be in a minority in that branch of Congress. 

The sessions of the Thirtieth Congress were crowded with 
important events. The unjust war with .Mexico, commenced 
mainly with a view to the extension of Slavery, was terminated 
on the 30th of*May, 1848. By the treaty of peace, Mexico 
ceded to the United States the territory comprised in New Mex- 
ico and Upper California. The lower Rio Grande, from its mouth 
to El Paso, was made the boundary of Texas. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 25 

On tho 2iM of Dec. 1847, Mr. Lincoln introduced a resolu- 
tion, calling upon the President to inform Congress whether the 
spot on which the first blood was .shed, was on American soil or 
not. He voted steadily in opposition to the administration. 

Tho question of organizing a Territorial Government in Ore- 
gon, came up for discussion during the first session of this 
gress. Mr. Calhoun desired to insert in tho Oregon hill, 
his doctrine, of no power in Congress to abolish slavery in the 
Territories. This brought up the whole subject. Mr. Douglas 
proposed in the Senate to extend the line of 30° 30 11 , as laid 
down in the Wilmot proviso. This was one of that demagogue's 
first concessions to the South. 

A bill for organizing Oregon, applying tho conditions of the 
celebrated Northwest Ordinance of 1787, to the new Territory, 
was introduced into the House. The Slavery Prohibition pro- 
vision was stricken out. Mr. Lincoln spoke and voted against 
the amendment. It was lost by a vote of 114 to 88. The bill 
passed the House on the 2d of August, 1848, by a vote of 127 
to 70. In the Senate, Mr. Douglas moved to amend by extend- 
ing the line of 36° 30", to the Pacific. This was agreed to, 
on the 12th of August. The amended bill was sent to the 
House, which disagreed by a vote of 121 to 82. Mr. Lincoln 
voted steadily throughout this contest in favor of congressional 
prohibition of slavery. He performed yeoman service during 
this session, making himself felt in the House, as a man of 
ability. His humorous, quick, keen oratorical powers made 
him a decided character, and when he rose to speak, the House, 
feeling sure that he would make his points clearly and say some- 
thing vtorth hearing, always listened with attention. It was his 
custom to note down the points to which he wished to speak, 
and then trust to the glowing heat of his own mind for the 
sparks to fly whither they were meant. At first, his tone was 
slow and drawling, his manner heavy, but as he proceeded, he 
grew warm with argument. His features lighted up, his tone 
became clearer and more penetrating, and the orator, heated 
with his subject, would commence rapidly walking up and down 



26 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

tlio floor, one hand behind his coat-tail, the other gesticulating, 
while fast as the House subsided under some repartee or witty, 
anecdote, another would come tumbling forth, always hitting 
point-blank where it was aimed. 

The second session of the Thirtieth Congress was marked by 
an exciting debate, caused by the introduction of a resolution of 
thanks to General Taylor, and the army in Mexico, for the con- 
duct of the war. Mr. Ashmun, of Massachusetts, (President 
of the Chicago Convention,) moved to amend an amendment 
which virtually indorsed the administration in commencing the 
war, by adding the words, " In a war unnecessarily and uncon- 
stitutionally begun by the President of the United States." 

This amendment was finally carried, by a vote of 85 to 82, 
Mr. Lincoln voting in the affirmative. Throughout his congres- 
sional career, he steadily voted with the Whigs against the 
administration and its measures, as carried out in the Mexican 
war, and attempted to be enforced in the organization of Oregon. 

Mr. Lincoln took an active part in the Whig Convention, 
which, in 1848, nominated General Taylor for the Presidency. 
He canvassed his own State for the nominee. He also visited 
New England during the campaign, and attended the Whig 
State Convention, at Worcester. He afterwards went to New 
Bedford, where he made a political address, of which the 
Mercury of September 15, 1848, contains the following men- 
tion : — 

" Mr. Page, Chairman of the Executive Committee, intro- 
duced the Hon. Abraham Lincoln, member of Congress from 
Illinois, who had kindly yielded to the earnest solicitations of 
the Committee to come from Worcester to address our citizens. 
Mr. Lincoln enchained the attention of a delighted audience for 
nearly two hours. His speech covered the whole ground of the 
national election, and was marked by great originality, clear, 
conclusive, convincing reasoning, and enlivened by frequent 
flushes of genuine, racy, Western wit. We have rarely seen a 
more attentive or interested audience. In fact, he took the 
hours right between wind and water, and made a most admirable 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 27 

and effective speech, which cannot fail to make a lasting impres- 
sion on his hearers, and to gain friends for that honest old man 
and tried patriot, as well as soldier, Zachary Taylor. 

"After Mr. Lincoln finished his address, the audience "-ave 
him three hearty cheers, and repeated, with rousing cheers, for 
Taylor and Fillmore." 

In the following year, he was the candidate of his party in 
the legislature for United States Senator, but the Whigs were 
in the minority. 



28 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



CHAPTER III. 

1854 — The Nebraska Bill Agitation in Illinois— Position of Mr. Lincoln — 
Speech at Peoria — Anti-Nebraska Convention — Campaign of 1S5 >■ 

Fhom 1S49 to 1854, Mr. Lincoln was engaged assiduously 
in the practice of bis profession, and, being deeply immersed in 
business, was beginning to lose his interest in politics, when the 
scheming ambition of an unscrupulous aspirant to the Presiden- 
cy brought about the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. That 
act of baseness and perfidy aroused Mr. Lincoln, and he pre- 
pared for new efforts. He threw himself at once into the con- 
test that followed, and fought the battle of freedom on the 
ground of his former conflicts in Illinois with more than his 
accustomed energy and zeal, l^iose who recollect the tremendous 
battle fought in Illinois that year will award to Abraham Lin- 
coln fully three fourths of the ability and unwearying labor 
which resulted in the victory which gave Illinois her first 
Republican legislature, and placed Lyman Trumbull in the 
Senate of the United States. The first and greatest debate of 
that year came off between Lincoln and Douglas, at Springfield, 
during the progress of the State Fair, in October. The Chicago 
Press and Tribune describes the scene in the following graphic 
manner : — t 

The affair came off on the fourth day of October, 1854. The 
State Fair had been in progress two days, and the capital was full 
of all manner of men. The Nebraska bill had been passed on the 
previous twenty-second of May. Mr. Douglas had returned to 
Illinois to meet an outraged constituency. He had made a frag- 
mentary speech in Chicago, the people filling up each hiatus in a 
peculiar and good-humored way. He called the people a mob ; 
they called him a rowdy. The " mob " had the best of it, both then 
and at the election which succeeded. The notoriety of all these 
events had stirred up the politics of the State from bottom to top. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 29 

Hundreds of active politicians had met at Springfield, expecting a 
tournament of an unusual character, — Douglas, Breese, Kcerner, 
Lincoln, Trumbull, Matteson, Yates, Codding, John Calhoun, (of 
the order of the Candle-Box,) John M. Palmer, the whole house 
of the McConnells, Singleton, (known to fame in the Mormon 
war,) Thomas L. Harris, and a host of others. Several speeches 
were made before, and several after, the passage between Lincoln 
and Douglas, but that was justly held to be the event of the season. 

We. do not know whether a challenge to debate passed between 
the friends of the speakers or not, but there was a perfectly amica- 
ble understanding between Lincoln and Douglas that the former 
should speak two or three hours, and the latter reply in just as little 
or as much time as he chose. Mr. Lincoln took the stand at two 
o'clock, — a large crowd in attendance, and Mr. Douglas seated on 
a small platform in front of the desk. The first half hour of Mr. 
Lincoln's speech was taken up with compliments to his distinguished 
friend, Judge Douglas, and dry allusions to the political events of 
the past few years. His distinguished friend, Judge Douglas, had 
taken his seat, as solemn as the Cock-lane ghost, evidently with the 
design of not moving a muscle till it came his turn to speak. The 
laughter provoked by Lincoln's exordium, however, soon began lo 
make him uneasy, and when Mr. Lincoln arrived at his (Douglas's) 
speech, pronouncing the Missouri Compromise " a sacred thing 
which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb," 
he opened his lips far enough to remark, u A first-rate speech ! " 
This was the beginning of an amusing colloquy. 

" Yes," continued Lincoln, " so affectionate was my friend's 
regard for this compromise line, that when Texas was admitted into 
the Union, and it was found that a strip extended north of SG 3 '. 
he actually introduced a bill extending the line, an 1 prohibiting 
slavery in the northern edge of the new State." 

'-And you voted against the bill," said Douglas. 

" Precisely so," answered Lincoln ; " I was in favor of running 
the line a great deal further South." 

"Aboul this time," the speaker continued, "my distinguished 
friend introduced me to a particular friend of his, one David 
Wilrhot, of Pennsylvania." [Laughter.] 

4; I thought," said Douglas, "you would find him congenial com- 
pany." 

" So I did," replied Lincoln. " I had the pleasure of voting for 
his proviso, in one way and another, about forty times. It was a 



30 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

Democratic measure then, I believe. At any rate, General Cass 
scolded honest John Davis, of Massachusetts, soundly for talking 
away the last hours of the session, so that he (Cass) couldn't crowd 
it through. Apropos of General Cass; if I am not greatly mistaken, 
he has a prior claim to my distinguished friend to the authorship of 
popular sovereignty. The old gentleman has an infirmity for 
writing letters. Shortly after the scolding he gave John Davis, he 
wrote his Nicholson letter — " 

Douglas, (solemnly.) "God Almighty placed man on the earth, 
and told him to choose between good and evil. That was the 
origin of the Nebraska Bill ! " * 

Lincoln. " Well, the priority of invention being settled, let us 
award all credit to Judge Douglas for being the first to discover it." 

It would be impossible, in these limits, to give an idea ot the 
strength of Mr. Lincoln's argument. We deemed it by far the 
ablest effort of the campaign, — from whatever source. The occa- 
sion was a great one, and the speaker was every way equal to it. 
The effect produced on the listeners was magnetic. No one who 
was present will ever forget the power and vehemence of the 
following passage : — 

" My distinguished friend says it is an insult to the emigrants to 
Kansas and Nebraska to suppose that they are not; able to govern 
themselves. We must not slur over an argument of this kind, 
because it happens to tickle the ear. It must be met and answered. 
I admit that the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to 
govern himself, but " (the speaker rising to his full height) U J deny 
his right to govern any other person without that person's 
consent." The applause which followed this triumphal refutation 
of a cunning falsehood was but an earnest of the victory at the 
polls which followed just one month from that day. 

When Mr. Lincoln had concluded, Mr. Douglas strode hastily 
to the stand. As usual, he employed ten minutes in telling 
how grossly he had been abused, recollecting himself, he added, 
" though in a perfectly courteous manner," — abused in a per- 
fectly courteous manner ! He then devoted half an hour to 
showing that it was indispensably necessary to California emi- 
grants, Santa Fe traders and others, to have organic acts pro- 
vided for the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, — that bein^ 
precisely the point which nobody disputes. Having established 
the.e premises to his satisfaction, Mr. Douglas launched forth into 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 31 

an argument wholly apart from tho positions taken by Mr. Lin- 
coln. Ho had about half finished at six o'clock, when an 
adjournment to tea was effected. The speaker insisted strenu- 
ously upon his right to resume in the evening, but we believe 
the second part of that speech has not been delivered to this 
day. After the Springfield passage, the two speakers went to 
Peoria, and tried it again, with identically the same results. A 
friend who listened to the Peoria debate, informed us that after 
Lincoln had finished, Douglas " hadn't much to say," — which 
we presume to have been Mr. Douglas's view of the case also, 
for tho reason that he ran away from his antagonist and kept 
out of his way during the remainder of his campaign. 

At Peoria, in the same summer, Mr. Lincoln made a speech, 
from which we extract. 

THE SPREAD OF SLAVERY. 

This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The forc^oin^ 
history may-not be precisely accurate in every particular ; but I 
am sure it is sufficiently so for all the uses I shall attempt to make 
of it, and in it we have before us the chief materials enabling us 
to correctly judge whether the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
is right or wrong. 

I think, and shall try to show, that it it wrong, — wrong in its 
direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, and wrong 
in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to every other 
part of the wide world, where men can be found inclined to 
take it. 

This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal 
for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of 
the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it de- 
prives our Republican example of its just influence in the world ; 
enables the enemies of free institutions, with plausibility, to taunt 
us as hypocrites ; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our 
sincerity, and especially because it forces so many really <j;ocd men 
amongst ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental 
principles of civil liberty, criticising the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but 
self-interest. 

Before proceeding, let me say, I think T have no prejudice 
against the Southern people. The} arc just what we would be in 



32 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them, they 
■would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us, we should 
not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses North and 
South. Doubtless there are individuals, on both sides, who would 
not hold slaves under any circumstances ; and others who would 
gladly introduce slavery anew if it were out of existence. "We 
know that some Southern men do free their slaves, go North, and 
become tip-top Abolitionists; while some Northern ones go South, 
and become most cruel slave-masters. 

WHAT SHALL BE DOXE ? 

When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for 
the origin of slavery than we, I acknowledge the fact. When it is 
said that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid 
of it, in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the 
saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should 
not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given 1m 1 , 
I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution. ?>Iy 
first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to 
Liberia — to their own native land. But a moment's reflection 
Mould convince me, that whatever of high hope (as I think there 
»s) there may be in this, in the long run, its sudden execution is 
impossible. If they were all landed there in a day, they would all 
perish in the next ten days ; and there are not surplus shipping 
and surplus money enough in the world to carry them there in 
many times ten days. What then ? Free them all, and keep 
them among us as underlings'? Is it quite certain that this betters 
their condition? I think I would not hold one in slavery at any 
rate; yet the point is not clear enough to me to denounce people 
upon. What next ? Tree them, and make them politically and 
socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this; and 
if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white 
people will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and 
sound judgment, is not the sole question, if, indeed, it is any part 
of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be 
safely disregarded. We cannot, then, make them equals. ltd - 
seem to me that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted ; 
but for their tardiness in this, I will not undertake to judge our 
brethren of the South. 

When they remind us of their constitutional rights, I acknowl- 
edge them, not grudgingly, but fully and fairly ; and I would give 



OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 33 

them any legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives, which 
should not, in its stringency, be more likely to carry a free man 
into slavery, than our ordinary criminal laws arc to hang an inno- 
cent one. 

But all this, to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse for per- 
mitting slavery to go into our own free territory, than it would for 
reviving the African slave-trade by law. The law which forbids 
the bringing of slaves from Africa, and that which has so long for- 
bid the taking of them to Nebraska, can hardly be distinguished on 
any moral principle ; and the repeal of the former could find quite 
as plausible excuses as that of the latter. 

In October of the same year, a mass convention of the 
anti-Nebraska men was held at Springfield. The following 
resolutions were there adopted. The platform adopted was 
more radical than the sentiments then and since avowed by 
Mr. Lincoln, — 

1. Resolved, That we believe this truth to be self-evident, that 
when parties become subversive of the ends for which they are 
established, or incapable of restoring the Government to the true 
principles of the Constitution, it is the right and duty of the people 
to dissolve the political bands by which they may have been con- 
nected therewith, and to organize new parties upon such principles 
and with such views as the circumstances and exigencies of the 
nation may demand. 

2. Resolved, That the times imperatively demand the reorgan- 
ization of parties, and, repudiating all previous party attachments, 
names, and predilections, we unite ourselves together in defence of 
the liberty and Constitution of the country, and will hereafter co- 
operate as the Republican party, pledged to the accomplishment of 
the following purposes : To bring the administration of the Gov- 
ernment back to the control of first principles ; to restore Nebraska 
and Kansas to the position of free territories ; that as the Constitu- 
tion of the United States vests in the States, and not in Congress, 
the power to legislate for the extradition of fugitives from labor, to 
repeal and entirely abrogate the Fugitive Slave Law; to restrict 
slavery to those States in which it exists; to prohibit the admission 
of any more slave States into the Union ; to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia; to exclude slavery from all the territorii a 
over which the General Government has exclusive jurisdiction ; and 

3 



34 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

to resist the acquirements of any more territories unless the prac- 
tice of slavery therein forever shall have been prohibited. 

3. Resolved, that in furtherance of these principles we will use 
such constitutional and lawful means as shall seem best adapted to 
their accomplishment, and that we will support no man for office, 
under the General or State Government, who is not positively and 
fully committed to the support of these principles, and whose per- 
sonal character and conduct is not a guaranty that he is reliable, 
and who shall not have abjured old party allegiance and ties. 

In 1855, Mr. Lincoln was again a candidate before the leg- 
islature for the United States senatorship, but was unsuccessful, 
Judge Trumbull being elected to the position he has since 
so ably filled. 

The Republican party being fully organized with the gal- 
lant Fremont as its candidate for the Presidency, Mr. 
Lincoln was placed at the head of the State Electoral 
Ticket. He canvassed the State during that exciting cam- 
paign. 



OF ADRAHAM LINCOLN. 35 



CHAPTER IV. 



Nomination as Senator at Springfield— Speech of Acceptance — Challenge to 
Douglas — Correspondence. 



The Republican State Convention of Illinois, that met at 
Springfield, June 17, 1858, placed in nomination Abraham Lin- 
coln as its candidate for the United States senatorship, soon to be 
vacated by the expiration of Judge Douglas's term. The latter 
came fresh from his celebrated Lecompton struggle, to fight 
both the Republican candidate and the friends of the adminis- 
tration. The strife was indeed an arduous one, and won the 
admiration of the " Little Giant's " most determined foes. 

In accepting this nomination, tendered him by the Conven- 
tion, Mr. Lincoln gives expression to the principles which he 
conceived should govern the coming canvass. He also ana- 
lyzes the position of Senator Douglas and of both wings of 
the Democratic party. The speech will be found terse, logical, 
and vigorous. It reviews the position of the two branches of 
the Democracy, and exposes in a scathing manner the false 
premises and weaker deductions of his opponent. He com- 
menced by enunciating, in the broadest manner — 

THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : If we could 
first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could 



36 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far 
into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated with the avowed 
object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. 
Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not 
ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not 
cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. " A house 
divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government can- 
not endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect 
the Union to be dissolved ; I do not expect the house to fall ; but 
I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing 
or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the 
further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in 
the belief that it is in the course of ultimate, extinction; or its advo- 
cates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the 
States ; old as well as new, North as well as South. 

THE DRED SCOTT DECISION — ITS HISTORY. 

Have we no tendency to the latter condition ? 

Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost 
complete legal combination, — piece of machinery, so to speak, — 
compounded of the Nebraska doctrine, and the Drcd Scott deci- 
sion. Let him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted 
to do, and how well adapted ; but also, let him study the history of 
its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to 
trace the evidences of design, and concert of action, among its chief 
architects, from the beginning. 

The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than 
half the States by State constitutions, and from most of the national 
territory by congressional prohibition. Four days later, commenced 
the struggle which ended in repealing that congressional prohibi- 
tion. This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the 
first point gained. 

But, so far, Congress only had acted ; and an indorsement by the 
people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save the point already 
gained, and give chance for more. 

This necessity had not been overlooked ; but had been provided 
for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of " squatter sov- 
ereignty," otherwise called " sacred right of self-government," which 
latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any 
government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 37 

amount to just tins: That if anyone man choose to enslave arwthef, 
no third man shall be allowed to object. That argument was incor- 
porated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows: 
" It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate 
slavey into any territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom; 
but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate 
their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
Constitution of the United States." Then opened the roar of loose 
declamation in favor of" Squatter Sovereignty," and "sacred right 
of self-government." « But," said opposition members, « let us amend 
the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the territory 
may exclude slavery." « Not we," said the friends of the measure ; 
and down they voted the amendment. 

While the Nebraska bill was passing through Congress, a laiv case 
involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of his owner 
having voluntarily taken him into a free Stated and then into a ter- 
ritory covered by the congressional prohibition, and held him as a 
slave for a long time in each, was passing through the U. S. Circuit 
Court for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and law- 
suit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The 
.negro's name was « Dred Scott," which name now designates the 
decision finally made in the case. Before the then next° presiden- 
tial election, the law case came to, and was argued in, the Supreme 
Court of the United States; but the decision of it was deferred 
until after the election. Still, before the election, Senator Trum- 
bull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the leading advocate of 
the Nebraska bill to state his opinion whether the people of a terri- 
tory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the 
latter answers: " That is a question for the Supreme Court." 

The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorse- 
ment, such as it was, secured. That was the second point gained. 
The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by 
nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not over- 
whelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The outgoing President,*! 
his last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed back 
upon the people the weight and authority of the indorsement. The 
Supreme Court met again ; did not announce their decision, but 
ordered a reargument. The presidential inauguration came, and 
Still no decision of the court; but the incoming President, in his 
inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the 



38 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

\ 

forthcoming decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a few days, 

came the decision. 

The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion 
to make a speech at this capital indorsing the Dred Scott decision, 
and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new Presi- 
dent, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse 
and strongly construe that decision, and to express his astonishment 
that any different view had ever been entertained ! 

At length a squabble springs up between the President and the 
author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question of fact, whether 
the Lecompton Constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made 
by the people of Kansas ; and in that quarrel the latter declares 
that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not 
whether slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not understand 
his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or 
voted up, to be intended by him other than as an apt definition of 
the policy he would impress upon the public mind, — the principle 
for which he declares he has suffered so much, and is ready to suffer 
to the end. And well may he cling to that principle. If he has 
any parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That principle is the 
only shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred 
Scott decision, " squatter sovereignty " squatted out of existence, 
tumbled down, like temporary scaffolding, — like the mould at the 
foundry served through one blast, and fell back into loose sand, — 
helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His 
late joint struggle with the Republicans, against the Lecompton 
Constitution, involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. 
That struggle was made on a point — the right of a people to make 
their own constitution — upon which he and the Republicans have 
never differed. 

ITS WORKINGS AND OBJECTS. 

The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with 
Senator Douglas's " care not " policy, constitute the piece of machin- 
ery, in its present state of advancement. This was the third point 
gained. The working points of that machinery are : — 

First, That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no 
descendant of such slave, can ever be a citizen of any State, in the 
sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States. 



OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 39 

This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible 
event, of the benefit of that provision of the United States Constitu- 
tion, which declares that " The citizens of each State shall be enti- 
tled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
States." 

Secondly, That " subject to the Constitution of the United 
States," neither Congress nor a territorial legislature can exclude 
slavery from any United States territory. This point is made in 
order that individual men may fill up the territories with slaves, 
without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the 
chances of permanency to the institution through all the future. 

Thirdly, That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in 
a free State, makes him free, as against the holder, the United 
States courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the 
courts of any slave State the negro may be forced into by the 
master. This point is made, not to be pressed immediately ; but, if 
acquiesced in for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people at 
an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred 
Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free State of 
Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one 
or one thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free State. 

Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Ne- 
braska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mould public 
opinion, at least Northern public opinion, not to care whether 
slavery is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly where we 
now are ; and partially, also, whither we are tending. 

TELE CONSPIRACY. 

It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run 
the mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several 
things will now appear less dark and mysterious than they did when 
they were transpiring. The people were to be left - perfectly free," 
" subject only to the Constitution." What the Constitution had to 
do with it, outsiders could not then set'. Plainly enough now, it was 
an exactly fitted niche, for the Dred Scott decision to afterward 
come in, and declare the perfeel freedom of the people to be just no 
freedom at all. Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the 
right of the people, voted down'.-' Plainly enough now: the adop- 
tion of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scotl decision. 
Why was the court decision held up? Why even* a Senator's in- 



40 LIFE- AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

dividual opinion withheld, till after the presidential election? 
Plainly enough now : the speaking out then would have damaged 
the perfectly free argument upon which the election was to be 
carried. Why the outgoing President's felicitation on the indorse- 
ment? Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming 
President's advance exhortation in favor of the decision ? These 
things look like the cautious patting and petting of a spirited horse 
preparatory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give 
the rider a fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of the deci- 
sion by the President and others ? 

We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are 
the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, 
different portions of which we know have been gotten out at dif- 
ferent times and places and by different workmen, — Stephen, 
Franklin, Kogcr, and James, for instance, — and when we see these 
timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a 
house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fitting, and all 
the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted 
to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few, — 
not omitting even scaffolding, — or, if a single piece be lacking, we 
see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring 
such piece in, — in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe 
that Stephen, and Franklin, and Roger, and James, all understood 
one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common 
plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was struck. 

It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the people 
of a State as well as territory, were to be left " perfectly free," 
*' subject only to the Constitution." Why mention a State ? They 
were legislating for territories, and not for or about States. Cer- 
tainly the people of a State are and ought to be subject to the Con- 
stitution of the United States ; but why is mention of this lugged 
into this merely territorial law ? Why are the people of a terri- 
tory and the people of a State therein lumped together, and their 
relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the 
same ? While the opinion of the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in 
the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring 
judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States 
neither permits Congress nor a territorial legislature to exclude 
slavery from any United States territory, they all omit to declare 
whether or not the same Constitution permits a State, or the people 

• 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 41 

of a State to exclude it. Possibly, tins is a mere omission ; but who 
can be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the 
opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a State to 
exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace sought to 
get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a territory, into the 
Nebraska bill; — I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not 
have been voted down in the one case as it had been in the other ? 
The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State 
over slavery, is njiade by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more 
than once, using the precise idea, and almost the language, too, of 
the Nebraska act. On one occasion, his exact language is, " Except 
in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the 
United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of 
slavery within its jurisdiction." In what cases the power of the 
States is so restrained by the United States Constitution, is left an 
open question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on 
the power of the territories, was left open in the Nebraska act. 
Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche, 
which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court 
decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does 
not permit a State to exclude slavery from its limits. And this may 
especially be expected if the doctrine of " care not whether slavery 
be voted down or voted up," shall gain upon the public mind suffi* 
ciently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when 
made. 

Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike law- 
ful in all the States. Welcome, or unwelcome, such decision is 
probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the 
present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown. "We shall 
lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri arc on 
the verge of making their State free, and we shall awake to the 
reality instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave 
State. To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the 
work now before all those who would prevent that consummation. 
That is what we have to do. How can we best do it '? 

THE SLAVE OLIGARCHY AND JUDGE DOUGLAS. 

There arc those who denounce us openly to their own friends, and 
yet whisper us softly, that Senator Douglas is the aptcst instrument 



42 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

there is -with which to effect that object. They wish us to infer all, 
from the fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present head 
of the dynasty ; and that he has regularly voted with us on a single 
point, upon which he and we have never differed. They remind 
us that he is a great man, and that the largest of us are very small 
ones. Let this be granted. But " a living dog is better than a 
dead lion." Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion, for this work, is at 
least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances 
of slavery V He don't care anything about it. His avowed mis- 
sion is impressing the " public heart" to care nothing about it. A 
leading Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas's superior 
talent will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave-trade. 
Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching ? 
He has not said so. Does he really think so ? But if it is, how can 
he resist it ? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of 
white men to take negro slaves into the new territories. Can he 
possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they 
can be bought cheapest ? And unquestionably they can be bought 
cheaper in Africa than in Virginia. He has done all in his power to 
reduce the wmole question of slavery to one of a mere right of 
property ; and as such, how can he oppose the foreign slave-trade, — 
how can he refuse that trade, in that " property " shall be " perfectly 
free," — unless he does it as a protection to the homo production ? 
And as the home producers will probably not ask the protection, he 
will be wholly without a ground of opposition. 

Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be 
wiser to-day than he was yesterday, that he may rightfully change 
when he finds himself wrong. But can we, for that reason, run 
ahead, and infer that he will make any particular change, of which 
he, himself, has given no intimation '? Can we safely base our 
action upon any such vague inference ? Now, as ever, I wish not 
to misrepresent Judge Douglas's position, question his motives, or 
do aught that can be personally offensive to him. Whenever, if 
ever, he and we can come together on principle so that our cause 
may have assistance from his great ability, I hope to have inter- 
posed no adventitious obstacle. But clearly, he is not now with 
us ; he does not pretend to be ; he does not promise ever to be. 

Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own 
undoubted friends, — those whose hands are free, whose hearts are 
in the work, who do care for the result. Two years ago the Re- 



OF ABRAIIAM LINCOLN. 43 

The canvass that ensued was one of the most memorable 

political contests in the history of this country. Mr. Lin- 
coln's conduct of the Republican cause, against confessedly 
one of the most powerful and aide of politicians now living, 
won for him, at once; a national reputation. It was his mas- 
terly expose of the Democratic treachery to the Union, which 
caused him to be taken up by the Chicago Convention and 
made the standard-bearer of the party during the ensuing im- 
portant contest. 

Mr. Lincoln spoke twice in the canvass previous to the com- 
mencement of the joint debates between himself and Senator 
Douglas. 

The following correspondence shows the arrangements for 
the joint debates, which, in the summer of 1858, made the peo- 
ple of the county generally look so eagerly to Illinois. The 
challenge for the joint discussion, as will be seen, proceeded 
from the Republican candidate. 

Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Douglas. 

Chicago, III., July 24, 1858. 
Hon. S. A. Douglas — My Bear Sir : Will it be agreeable to 
you to make an arrangement for you and myself to divide time, 
and address the same audiences, the present canvass ? Mr. Judd, 
who will hand you this, is authorized to receive your answer ; and, 
if agreeable to you, to enter into the terms of such arrangement. 
Your obedient servant, 

A. LINCOLN. 



Mr. Douglas to Mr. Lincoln. 

Ciiicaco, July 24, 1S58. 

Hon. A. Lixcoln — Dear Sir: Your note of this date, in which 
you inquire if it would be agreeable to me to make an arrangement 
to divide the time, and address the same audiences, dining the 
present canvass, was handed me by Mr. Judd. Recent events 
have interposed difficulties in the way of sueli an arrangement 

I went to Springfield last week for the purpose' of conferring 
with the Democratic State Central Committee upon the mode of 
conducting the canvass, and with them, and under their advice, 
made a list of appointments covering the entire period until late in 



44 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

October. The people of the several localities have been notified of 
the times and places of the meetings. Those appointments have 
all been made for Democratic meetings, and arrangements have 
been made by which the Democratic candidates for Congress, for 
the legislature, and other offices, will be .present, and address the 
people. It is evident, therefore, that these various candidates, in 
connection with myself, will occupy the whole time of the day and 
evening, and leave no opportunity for other speeches. 

Besides, there is another consideration which should be kept in 
mind. It has been suggested recently that an arrangement had 
been made to bring out a third candidate for the United States 
Senate, who, with yourself, should canvass the State in opposition 
to me, with no other purpose than to insure my defeat, by dividing 
the Democratic party for your benefit. If I should make this 
arrangement with you, it is more than probable that this other 
candidate, who has a common object with you, would desire to 
become a party to it, and claim the right to speak from the same 
stand ; so that he and you, in concert, might be able to take the 
opening and closing speech in every case. 

I cannot refrain from expressing my surprise, if it was your 
original intention to invite such an arrangement, that you should 
have waited until after I had made my appointments, inasmuch as 
we were both here in Chicago together for several days after my 
arrival, and again at Bloomington, Atlanta, Lincoln, and Spring- 
field, where it was well known I went for the purpose of consulting 
with the State Central Committee, and agreeing upon the plan of 
the campaign. 

While, under these circumstances, I do not feel at liberty to 
make any arrangements which would deprive the Democratic 
candidates for Congress, State officers, and the legislature, from 
participating in the discussion at the various meetings designated 
by the Democratic State Central Committee, I will, in order to 
accommodate you as far as it is in my power to do so, take the 
responsibility of making an arrangement with you for a discussion 
between us at one prominent point in each Congressional District 
in the State, except the second and sixth districts, where we have 
both spoken, and in each of which cases you had the concluding 
speech. If agreeable to you, I will indicate the following places as 
those most suitable in the several Congressional Districts at which 
we should "speak, to wit: Freeport, Ottawa, Galesburg, Quincy, 



OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 45 

Alton, Jonesboro', and Charleston. I will confer "with you at the 
earliest convenient opportunity in regard to the mode of conduct- 
ing the debate, the times of meeting at the several places, subject 
to the condition, that where appointments have already been made 
by the Democratic State Central Committee at any of those places, 
I must insist upon you meeting me at the times specified. 

Very respectfully, your most obedient servant, 

S. A. DOUGLAS. 



Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Douglas. 

Sprixgfield, July 29, 1858. 

Hon. S. A. Douglas — Dear Sir: Yours of the 24th, in relation 
to an arrangement to divide time, and address the same audiences, 
is received ; and, in apology for not sooner replying, allow me to 
say, that when I sat by you at dinner yesterday, I was not aware 
that you had answered my note, nor, certainly, that my own note 
had been presented to you. An hour after, I saw a copy of your 
answer in the Chicago Times, and, reaching home, I found the 
original awaiting me. Protesting that your insinuations of 
attempted unfairness on my part are unjust, and, with the hope 
that you did not very considerately make them, I proceed to reply. 
To your statement that " it has been suggested, recently, that an 
arrangement had been made to bring out a third candidate for the 
United States Senate, who, with yourself, should canvass the State 
in opposition to me," etc., I can only say that such suggestion must 
have been made by yourself, for, certainly, none such has been 
made by or to me, or otherwise, to my knowledge. Surely, you 
did not deliberately conclude, as you insinuate, that I was expecting 
to draw you into an arrangement of terms, to be agreed on by 
yourself, by which a third candidate and myself, " in concert, 
might be able to take the opening and closing speech in every 
case." 

As to your surprise that I did not sooner make the proposal to 
divide time with you, I can only say I made it as soon as I resolved 
to make it. I did not know but that such proposal would come 
from you ; I waited, respectfully, to see. It may have been weO 
known to you that you went to Springfield for the purpose of 
agreeing on the plan of campaign ; but it was not so known to me. 



46 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

When your appointments were announced in the papers, extending 
only to the 21st of August, I, for the first time, considered it certain 
that you would make no proposal to me, and then resolved that, 
if my friends concurred, I would make one to you. As soon there- 
after as I could see and consult with friends satisfactorily, I did 
make the proposal. It did not occur to me that the proposed 
arrangement could derange your plans after the latest of your 
appointments already made. After that, there was, before the 
election, largely over two months of clear time. 

For you to say that we have already spoken at Chicago and 
Springfield, and that on both occasions I had the concluding 
speech, is hardly a fair statement. The truth rather is this : At 
Chicago, July 9, you made a carefully prepared conclusion on my 
speech of June lGth. Twenty-four hours after, I made a hasty 
conclusion on yours on the 9th. You had six days to prepare, and 
concluded on me again, at Bloomington, on the 16th. Twenty- 
four hours after, I concluded again on you at Springfield. In the 
mean time, you had made another conclusion on me at Springfield, 
which I did not hear, and of the contents of which I knew nothing 
when I spoke ; so that your speech made in daylight, and mine at 
night, of the 17th, at Springfield, were both made in perfect 
independence of each other. The dates of making all these 
speeches will show, I think, that, in the matter of time for pre- 
paration, the advantage has all been on your side ; and that 
none of the external circumstances have stood to my advantage 

I agree to an arrangement for us to speak at the seven places 
you have named, and at your own times, provided you name the 
times at once, so that I, as well as you, can have to myself the 
time not covered by the arrangement. As to the other details, 
I wish perfect reciprocity, and no more. I wish as much time 
as you, and that conclusions shall alternate. That is all. 

Your obedient servant, 

A. LINCOLN. 

P. S. As matters now stand, I shall be at no more of your 
exclusive meetings ; and, for about a week from to-day, a letter 
from you will reach me at Springfield. A. L. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 

Mr. Douglas to Mr. Lincoln. 

Bement, Piatt Co., III., July 30, 1858. 
Dear Sir : Your letter, dated yesterday, accepting my proposi- 
tion for a joint discussion at one prominent point in each Congres- 
sional District, as stated in my previous letter, was received this 
morning. 

The times and places designated are as follows : — 

Ottawa, La Salle County \ . .August 21, 1858. 

Freeport, Stephenson County. " 27, " 

Jonesboro', Union County September 15, " 

Charleston, Coles County " 18, " 

Galesburg, Knox County October 7, " 

Quincy, Adams County " 13, " 

Alton, Madison County " 15, " 

I agree to your suggestion that we shall alternately open and 
close the discussion. I will speak at Ottawa one hour, you can 
reply, occupying an hour and a half, and I will then follow for half 
an hour. At Freeport, you shall open the discussion, and speak 
one hour, I will follow for an hour and a half, and you can then 
reply for half an hour. We will alternate in like manner in each 
successive place. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. DOUGLAS. 

Hon. A. Lincoln, Springfield, 111. 



Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Douglas. 

Springfield, July 31, 1858. 
Hon. S. A. DotrGLAS — Dear Sir: Yours of yesterday, naming 
places, times, and terms, for joint discussions between us, was 
received this morning. Although, by the terms, as you propose, 
you take four openings and closes to my three, I accede, and thus 
close the arrangement. I direct this to you at Hillsboro', and shall 
try to have both your letter and this appear in the Journal and 
Register of Monday morning. 

Your obedient servant, 

A. LINCOLN. 



48 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



CHAPTER V. 

The Senatorial Debates — Position of the Candidates — The Second Debate, at 
Freeport — Arguments of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas. 

The contest that ensued upon the acceptance of Mr. Lincoln's 
challenge, was certainly one of the most remarkable in our 
political history. The position of the two men, the circum- 
stances under which they appeared before the public, and the 
peculiar uncertainty which seemed to hang over political affairs, 
all combined to rivet the attention of the country upon this 
extraordinary struggle. 

Both men were remarkable for great native ability, and for 
having, by their own energy, placed themselves in the foremost 
ranks of their respective parties. One of them, Judge Doug- 
las, is far more than an ordinary man in his own range of intel- 
lect. He is one of the ablest, most unscrupulous, and daring 
of politicians. Not by any means possessed of the qualities of a 
statesman, he yet has great power as a popular leader and a 
partisan advocate. The other, Mr. Lincoln, with much less 
of the politician and partisan, less adroit and cunning, has yet, 
by the clearness of his logical intellect, the sagacious honesty of 
his character, and the persistence and energy with which he 
enforces ideas and carries out his purpose, won for himself a 
strong and abiding hold in the heart and faith of the people. 

The Democratic Senator had returned from Washington, 
fresh from his Lecompton fight, — a fight induced by policy, 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 49 

and not principle, on his part. He stood before the people 
black with broken pledges, and disgraced by the violated com- 
pacts which, for his own mad ambition, he had broken. It was 
necessary to meet and expose his duplicity and treachery. Well 
and ably was it performed by Mr. Lincoln. 

The second of these debates, held at Freeport, August 27, is 
generally esteemed the most masterly of these expositions of 
the principles of both the great parties, as represented by 
Messrs. Lincoln and Douglas. It is herewith inserted entire. 

SECOND JOINT DEBATE, AT FREEPORT. 

MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECII, AUGUST 27, 1858. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : On Saturday last, Judge Douglas and 
myself first met in public discussion. He spoke one hour, I an 
hour and a half, and he replied for half an hour. The order is 
now reversed. I am to speak an hour, he an hour and a half, and 
then I am to reply for half an hour. I propose to devote myself 
during the first hour to the scope of what was brought within the 
range of his half hour's speech at Ottawa. Of course there was 
brought within the scope in that half hour's speech something of 
his own opening speech. In the course of that opening argument, 
Judge Douglas proposed to me seven distinct interrogatories. In 
my speech of an hour and a half, I attended to some other parts 
of his speech, and incidentally, as I thought, answered one of the 
interrogatories then. I then distinctly intimated to him that I 
would answer the rest of his interrogatories on condition only that 
he should agree to answer as many for me. He made no intimation 
at the time of the proposition, nor did he in his reply allude at all 
to that suggestion of mine. I do him no injustice in saying that he 
occupied at least half of his reply in dealing with me as though I 
had refused to answer his interrogatories. I now propose that I 
will answer any of the interrogatories upon condition that he will 
answer questions from me not exceeding the sune number. I give 
him an opportunity to respond. The Judge remains silent. I now 
say that I will answer his interrogatories whether he answers mine 

4 



50 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

or not ; and that, after I have done so, I shall propound mine 
to hirn. 

I hive supposed myself, since the organization of the Republi- 
can party at Bloomington, in May, 1856, bound as a party man by 
the platforms of the party, then and since. If in any interrogato- 
ries which I shall answer I go beyond the scope of what is within 
these platforms, it will be perceived that no one is responsible but 
myself. 

Having said thus much, I will take up the Judge's interroga- 
tories as I find them printed in the Chicago Times, and answer 
them seriatim. Tn order that there may be no mistake about it, I 
have copied the interrogatories in writing, and also my answers to 
them. The first one of these interrogatories is in these words : — 

Question 1. I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day stands, 
as he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugi- 
tive Slave Law ? 

Answer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the un 
conditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. 

Q. 2. I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to- 
day, as he did in 1854, against the admission of any more slave 
States into the Union, even if the people want them ? 

A. I do not now, nor ever did, stand pledged against the admis- 
sion of any more slave States into the Union. 

Q. 3. I want to know whether he stands pledged against 
the admission of a new State into the Union with such a constitu- 
tion as the people of that State may see fit to make ? 

A. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new 
State into the Union with such a Constitution as the people of that 
State may see fit to make. 

Q. 4. I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged to 
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia ? 

A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in 
the District of Columbia. 

Q. 5. I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to 
the prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States ? 

A. I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade 
between the different States. 

Q. G. I desire to know whether he stands pledged to pro- 
hibit slavery in all the territories of the United States, north as 
well as south of the Missouri Compromise line ? 



OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 51 

A. I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the 
right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United 
States territories. 

(2. 7. I desire him to answer whether he is opposed to the 
acquisition of any new territory unless slavery is first prohibited 
therein ? 

A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of territo- 
ry ; and, in any given case, I would or would not oppose such 
acquisition, accordingly as I might think such acquisition would 
or would not aggravate the slavery question among ourselves. 

Now, my friends, it will be perceived upon an examination of 
these questions and answers, that so far I have only answered that 
I was not pledged to this, that, or the other. The Judge has not 
framed his interrogatories to ask me anything more than this, and 
I have answered in strict accordance with the interrogatories, and 
have answered truly that I am not pledged at all upon any of the 
points to which I have answered. But I am not disposed to hang 
upon the exact form of his interrogatory. I am rather disposed to 
take up at least some of these questions, and state what I really 
think upon them. 

As to the first one, in regard to the Fugitive Slave Law, I have 
never hesitated to say, and I do not now hesitate to say, that I 
think, un^er the Constitution of the United States, the people of 
the Southern States are entitled to a congressional Fugitive Slave 
Law. Having said that, I have had nothing to say in regard to the 
existing Fugitive Slave Law, further than that I think it should 
have been framed so as to be free from some of the objections that 
pertain to it, without lessening its efficiency. And inasmuch as we 
are not now in an agitation in regard to an alteration or modifica- 
tion of that law, I would not be the man to introduce it as a 
new subject of agitation upon the general question of slavery. 

In regard to the other question, of whether I am pledged to the 
admission of any more slave States into the Union, I state to you 
very frankly, that I would be exceedingly sorry ever to be put in a 
position of having to pass upon that question. I should be exceed- 
ingly glad to know that there would never be another slave State 
admitted into the Union; but I must add, that it' slavery shall be 
kept out of the Territories during the territorial existence of any 
one given Territory, and then the people shall, having a fair chance 
and a clear field, when they come to adopt the Constitution, do 



52 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave Constitution, unin- 
fluenced by the actual presence of the institution among them, 1 see 
no alternative, if we own the country, but to admit them into the 
Union. 

The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to the second, 
it being, as I conceive, the same as the second. 

The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia. In relation to that, I have my mind very dis- 
tinctly made up. I should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abol- 
ished in the District of Columbia. I believe that Congress pos- 
sesses the constitutional power to abolish it. Yet, as a member of 
Congress, I should not, with my present views, be in favor of 
endeavoring to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, unless it 
would be upon these conditions : First, that the abolition should 
be gradual. Second, that it should be on a vote of a majority of 
qualified voters in the District ; and third, that compensation should 
be made to unwilling owners. With these three conditions, I con- 
fess I would be exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in 
the District of Columbia, and, in the language of Henry Clay, 
" sweep from our capital that foul blot upon our nation." 

In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say here, that, as to 
the question of the abolition of the slave-trade between the differ- 
ent States, I can truly answer, as I have, that I am pledged to 
nothing about it. It is a subject to which I have not given that 
mature consideration that would make me feel authorized to state a 
position so as to hold myself entirely bound by it. In other words, 
that question has never been prominently enough before me to in- 
duce me to investigate whether we really have the constitutional 
power to do it. I could investigate it if I had sufficient time, to 
bring myself to a conclusion upon that subject; but I have not done 
so, and I say so frankly to you here, and to Judge Douglas. I must 
say, however, that if I should be of opinion that Congress does 
possess the constitutional power to abolish the slave-trade among 
the different States, I should still not be in favor of the exercise of 
that power unless upon some conservative principle, as I conceive 
it akin to what I have said in relation to the abolition of slavery in 
the District of Columbia. 

My answer as to whether I desire that slavery should be prohib- 
ited in all the territories of the United States, is full and explicit 
within itself, and cannot be made clearer by any comments of mine. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 53 

So I suppose in regard to the question whether I am opposed to the 
acquisition of any more territory, unless slavery is first prohibited 
therein, my answer is such that I could add nothing by way of 
illustration, or making myself better understood, than the answer 
which I have placed in writing. 

Now in all this, the Judge has me, and he has me on the record. 
I suppose he had flattered himself that I was really entertaining 
one set of opinions for one place, and another set for another place, 
— that I was afraid to say at one place what I uttered at another. 
What I am saying here I suppose I say to a vast audience as strongly 
tending to Abolitionism as any audience in the State of Illinois, 
and 1 believe I am saying that, which, if it would be offensive to 
any persons and render them enemies to myself, would be offensive 
to persons in this audience. 

I now proceed to propound to the Judge the interrogatories, so 
far as I have framed them. I will bring forward a new instalment 
when I get them ready. I will bring them forward now, only 
reaching to number four. 

The first one is : — ■ 

Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall, by means entirely 
unobjectionable in all other respects, adopt a State Constitution, 
and ask admission into the Union under it, before they have the 
requisite number of inhabitants according to the English bill, — 
some ninety-three thousand, — will you vote to admit them ? 

Q. 2. Can the people of a United States Territory, in any law- 
ful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, ex- 
clude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State 
Constitution ? 

Q. 3. If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide 
that States cannot exclude slavery from their limits, are you in 
favor of acquiescing in, adopting, and following such decision as a 
rule of political action ? 

Q. 4. Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory, in dis- 
regard of how such acquisition may affect the nation on the slavery 
question ? 

As introductory to these interrogatories which Judge Douglas pro- 
pounded to me at Ottawa, he read a set of resolutions which he 
said Judge Trumbull and myself had participated in adopting, in 
the first Republican State Convention, held at Springfield, in Octo- 
ber, 1854. He insisted that I and Judge Trumbull, and perhaps the 



54 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

entire Republican party, were responsible for the doctrines contained 
in the set of resolutions which he read, and I understand that it was 
from that set of resolutions that he deduced the interrogatories 
which he propounded to me, using these resolutions as a sort 
of authority for propounding those questions to me. Now I say here, 
to-day, that I do not answer his interrogatories because of their 
springing at all from that set of resolutions which he read. I an- 
swered them because Judge Douglas saw fit to ask them. I do 
not now, nor never did, recognize any responsibility upon myself 
in that set of resolutions.* When I replied to him on that occasion, 
I assured him that I never had anything to do with them. I repeat 
here, to-day, that I never, in any possible form, had anything to do 
with that set of resolutions. It turns out, I believe, that those res- 
olutions were never passed in any Convention held in Springfield. It 
turns out that they were never passed at any Convention or any 
public meeting that I had any part in. I believe it turns out, in 
addition to all this, that there was not, in the fall of 1854, any Con- 
vention holding a session in Springfield, calling itself a Republican 
State Convention ; yet it is true there was a Convention, or assem- 
blage of men calling themselves a Convention, at. Springfield, that 
did pass some resolutions ; but so little did I really know of the 
proceedings of that Convention, or what set of resolutions they had 
passed, though having a general knowledge that there had been 
such an assemblage of men there, that when Judge Douglas read 
the resolutions, I really did not know but they had been the resolu 
tions passed then and there. I did not question that they were the 
resolutions adopted ; for I could not bring myself to suppose that 
Judge Douglas could say what he did upon this subject without 
knowing that it was true. I contented myself, on that occasion, 
with denying, as I truly could, all connection with them, not deny- 
ing or affirming whether they were passed at Springfield. Now it 
turns out that he had got hold of some resolutions passed at some 
Convention or public meeting in Kane county. I wish to say here, 
that I don't conceive that in any fair and just mind this discovery 
relieves me at all. I had just as much to do with the Convention 
in Kane county as that at Springfield. I am just as much responsi- 
ble for the resolutions at Kane county as those at Springfield, the 
amount of the responsibility being exactly nothing in either case ; 
no more than there would be in regard to a set of resolutions 
passed in the moon. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 55 

I allude to this extraordinary matter in this canvass for some fur- 
ther purpose than anything yet advanced. Judge Douglas did not 
make his statement upon that occasion as matters that he believed 
to be true, but he stated them roundly a ' being true, in such form 
as to pledge his veracity for their tru h. When the whole 
matter turns out as it does, and when we consider who Judge 
Douglas is, — that he is a distinguished Senator of the. United States, 
— that he has served nearly twelve years as such, — that his charac- 
ter is not at all limited as an ordinary Senator of the United 
States, but that his name has become of world-wide renown — it is 
most extraordinary that he should so far forget all the suggestions of 
justice to an adversary, or of prudence to himself, as to venture 
upon the assertion of that which the slightest investigation would 
have shown him to be wholly false. I can only account for his 
having done so upon the supposition that that evil genius which has 
attended him through his life, giving to him an apparent astonishing 
prosperity, such as to 'lead very many good men to doubt there 
being any advantage in virtue over vice, — I say I can only account 
for it on the supposition that that evil genius has at last made up 
its mind to forsake him. 

And I may add that another extraordinary feature of the Judge's 
conduct in this canvass — made more extraordinary by this inci- 
dent — is, that he is in the habit, in almost all the speeches he 
makes, of charging falsehood upon his adversaries, myself and others. 
1 now ask whether he is able to find in anything that Judge Trum- 
bull, for instance, has said, or in anything that I have said, a justi- 
fication at all compared with what we have, in this instance, for that 
sort of vulgarity. 

I luve been in the habit of charging as a matter of belief on my 
part, that, in the introduction of the Nebraksa bill into Congress^ 
there was a conspiracy to make slavery perpetual and national 
I have arranged, from time to time, the evidence which establishes 
and proves the truth of this charge. I recurred to this charge at 
Ottawa. I shall not now have time to dwell upon it at very great 
length; but, inasmuch as Judge Douglas in his reply of halt* an 
hour, made some points upon me in relation to it, I prop ;se noticing 
a few of them. 

The Judge insists that, in the first speech I made, in which I very 
distinctly made that charge, he thought for a good while I was in fun ! 
— that I was playful, — that I was not sincere about it, — and that 



56 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

he only grow angry and somewhat excited when he found that I 
insisted upon it as a matter of earnestness. He says he character- 
ized it as a falsehood as far as I implicated his moral character in 
that transaction. Well, I did not know, till he presented that view, 
that I had implicated his moral character. He is very much in the 
habit, when he argues me up into a position I never thought of 
occupying, of very cosily saying he has no doubt Lincoln is " con- 
scientious " in saying so. He should remember that I did not know 
but what he was altogether " conscientious " in that matter. 
I can conceive it possible for men to conspire to do a good thing, 
and I really find nothing in Judge Douglas's course or arguments 
that is contrary to or inconsistent with his belief of a conspiracy to 
nationalize and spread slavery as being a good and blessed thing, 
and so I hope he will understand that I do not at all question but 
that in all this matter he is entirely " conscientious." 

But to draw your attention to one of the points I made in this 
case, beginning at the beginning. When the Nebraska bill was 
introduced, or a short time afterward, by an amendment, I believe, 
it was provided that it must be considered " the true intent and 
meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any State or ter- 
ritory, or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their own domestic institutions 
in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United 
States." I have called his attention to the fact that when he and 
some others began arguing that they were giving an increased de- 
gree of liberty to the people in the territories over and above what 
they formerly had on the question of slavery, a question was raised 
whether the law was enacted to give such unconditional lib- 
erty to the people ; and to test the sincerity of this mode of argu- 
ment, Mr. Chase, of Ohio, introduced an amendment, in which he 
made the law — if the amendment were adopted — expressly de- 
clare that the people of the territory should have the power to 
exclude slavery if they saw fit. I have asked attention also to the 
fact that Judge Douglas and those who acted with him, voted that 
amendment down, notwithstanding it expressed exactly the thing 
they said was the true intent and meaning of the law. I have called 
attention to the fact that in subsequent times, a decision of the Su- 
preme Court has been made, in which it has been declared that a 
territorial legislature has no constitutional right to exclude slavery. 
And I have argued and said that for men who did intend that the 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 57 

people of the territory should have the right to exclude slavery ab- 
solutely and unconditionally, the voting down of Chase's amendment 
is wholly inexplicable. It is a puzzle, — a riddle. But I have said 
that with men who did look forward to such a decision, or who had 
it in contemplation, that such a decision of the Supreme Court 
would or might be made, the voting down of that amendment would 
be perfectly rational and intelligible. It would keep Congress from 
coming in collision with the decision when it was made. Anybody 
can conceive that if there was an intention or expectation that such 
a decision was to follow, it would not be a very desirable party atti- 
tude to get into for the Supreme Court, — all or nearly all its mem- 
bers belonging to the same party, — to decide one way, when the 
party in Congress had decided the other way. Hence it would be 
very rational for men expecting such a decision, to keep the niche 
in that law clear for it. After pointing this out, I tell Judge 
Douglas that it looks to me as though here was the reason why 
Chase's amendment was voted down. I tell him that as he did it, 
and knows why he did it, if it was done for a reason different from 
this, lie knows what that reason was, andean tell us what it was. I tell 
him, also, it will be vastly more satisfactory to the country for him 
to give some other plausible, intelligible reason why it was voted 
down than to stand upon his dignity and call people liars. Well, 
on Saturday, he did make his answer, and what do you think 
it was? He says if I had only taken upon myself to tell the whole 
truth about that amendment of Chase's, no explanation would have 
been necessary on his part, — or words to that effect. Now, I say 
here, that I am quite unconscious of having suppressed anything 
material to the case, and I am very frank to admit if there is any 
sound reason other than that which appeared to me material, it is 
quite fair for him to present it. What reason does he propose ? 
That when Chase came forward with his amendment, expressly au- 
thorizing the people to exclude slavery from the limits of every ter- 
ritory, Gen. Cass proposed to Chase, if he (Chase) would add to 
his amendment that the people should have the power to introduce 
or exclude, they would let it go. This is substantially all of his 
reply. And because Chase would not do that, they voted his 
amendment down. Well, it turns out, I believe, upon examina- 
tion, that General Cass took some part in the little running debate 
upon that amendment, and then ran a way and did not vote on it at 
all. Is not that the fact ? So confident, as I think, was General 



58 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

Cass that there was a snake somewhere about, he chose to run away 
from the whole thing. This is an inference I draw from the fact 
that, though he took part in the debate, his name does not appear 
in the ayes and noes. But does Judge Douglas's reply amount to a 
satisfactory answer ? [Cries of " yes," " yes," and " no," " no."] 
There is some little difference of opinion here. But I ask atten- 
tion to a few more views bearing on the question of whether it. 
amounts to a satisfactory answer. The men who were determined 
that that amendment should not get into the bill, and spoil the place 
where the Dred Scott decision was to come in, sought an excuse to 
get rid of it somewhere. One of these ways, — one of these excuses, 
— was to ask Chase to add to his proposed amendment a provision 
that the people might introduce slavery if they wanted to. They 
very well knew Chase would do no such thing, — that Mr. Chase 
was one of the men differing from them on the broad principle of 
his insisting that freedom was belter than slavery, — a man who 
would not consent to enact a law, penned with his own hand, by 
which he was made to recognize slavery on the one hand and lib- 
erty on the other as precisely equal ; and when they insisted on his 
doing this, they very well knew they insisted on that which he 
would not for a moment think of doing, and that they were only 
bluffing him. I believe (I have not, since he made his answer, had 
a chance to examine the journals or Congressional Globe., and there- 
fore speak from memory) — I believe the state of the bill at that 
time, according to parliamentary rules, was such that no member 
could propose an additional amendment to Chase's amendment. I 
rather think this is the truth, — the Judge shakes his head. Very 
well. I would like to know, then, if they wanted Chase's amend' 
ment fixed over, ichy somebody else could not offer to do it ? If they 
wanted it amended, why did they not offer the amendment ? AVhy 
did they stand there taunting and quibbling at Chase ? Why did 
they not put it in themselves ? But to put it on the other ground ; 
suppose that there was such an amendment offered, and Chase's was 
an amendment to an amendment ; until one is disposed of by par- 
liamentary law, you cannot pile another on. Then all these gentle- 
men had to do was to vote Chase's on, and then in the amended 
form in which the whole stood, add their own amendment to it if 
they wanted to put it in that shape. This was all they were obliged 
to do, and the ayes and noes show that there were thirty-six who 
voted it down, against ten who voted in favor of it. The thirty-six 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 59 

field entire sway and control. They could in some form or other 
have put that bill in the exact shape they wanted. If there was a 
rule preventing their amending it at the time, they could pass that, 
and then Chase's amendment being merged, put it in the shape they 
wanted. They did not choose to do so, but they went into a quibble 
with Chase to get him to add what they knew he would not add, 
and because he would not, they stand upon that flimsy pretext for 
voting down what they argued was the meaning and intent of their 
own bill. They left room thereby for this Dred Scott decision, 
which goes very far to make slavery national throughout the United 
States. 

I pass one or two points I have because my time will very soon 
expire, but I must be allowed to say that Judge Douglas recur* 
again, as he did upon one or two other occasions, to the enormity of 
Lincoln, — an insignificant individual like Lincoln, — upon his ipse 
dixit charging a conspiracy upon a large number of members of 
Congress, the Supreme Court, and two Presidents, to nationalize 
slavery. I want to say that, in the first place, I have made no 
charge of this sort upon my ipse dixit. I have only arrayed the 
evidence tending to prove it, and presented it to the understanding 
of others, saying what I think it proves, but giving you the means 
of judging whether it proves it or not. This is precisely what I 
have done. I have not placed it upon my ipse dixit at all. On this 
occasion, I wish to recall his attention to a piece of evidence which 
I brought forward at Ottawa on Saturday, showing that he had 
made substantially the same charge against substantially the same 
persons, excluding his dear self from the category. I ask him to 
give some attention to the evidence which I brought forward, that 
he himself had discovered a " fatal blow being struck " against the 
right of the people to exclude slavery from their limits, which fatal 
blow lie assumed as in evidence in an article in the Washington 
Union, published " by authority." I ask by whose authority ? lie 
discovers a similar or identical provision in the Lecompton Consti- 
tution. Made by whom ? The framers of that Constitution. Ad- 
vocated by whom? By all the members of the party in the nation, 
who advocated the introduction of Kansas into the Union under the 
Lecompton Constitution. 

I have asked his attention to the evidence that he arraved to 
prove that such a fatal blow was being struck, and to the facts which 
he brought forward in support of that charge, — being identical with 



60 LIFE AND PUBLTC SERVICES 

the one which he thinks so villainous in me. He pointed it rot at 
a newspaper editor merely, but at the President and his Cabinet, 
and the members of Congress advocating the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion and those framing that instrument. I must again be permitted 
to remind him, that although my ipse dixit may not be as great as 
his, yet it somewhat reduces the force of his calling my attention to 
the enormity of my making a like charge against him. 
Go on, Judge Douglas. 



MR. DOUGLAS S SPEECH. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : The silence with which you have listen- 
ed to Mr. Lincoln, during his hour, is creditable to this vast audi- 
ence, composed of men of various political parties. Nothing is 
more honorable to any large mass of people assembled for the pur- 
pose of a fair discussion, than that kind and respectful attention 
that is yielded not only to your political friends, but to those who 
are opposed to you in politics. 

I am glad that at last I have brought Mr. Lincoln to the conclu- 
sion that he had better define his position on certain political ques- 
tions to which I called his attention at Ottawa. He there showed 
no disposition, no inclination, to answer them. I did not present 
idle questions for him to answer merely for my gratification. I laid 
the foundation for those interrogatories by showing that they consti- 
tuted the platform of the party whose nominee he is fOrthe Senate. 
I did not presume that I had the right to catechise him as I saw 
proper, unless I showed that his party, or a majority of it, stood upon 
the platform and were in favor of the propositions upon which my 
questions were based. I desired simply to know, inasmuch as he 
had been nominated as the first, last, and only choice of his party, 
whether he concurred in the platform which that party had adopted 
for its government. In a few moments I will proceed to review 
the answers which he has given to these interrogatories ; but in or- 
der to relieve his anxiety I will first respond to these which he has 
presented to me. Mark you, he has not presented interrogatories 
which have ever received the sanction of the party with which I am 
acting, and hence he has no other foundation for them than his own 
curiosity. 

First, he desires to know if the people of Kansas shall form a 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 61 

Constitution by means entirely proper and unobjectionable, and ask 
admission into the Union as a State, before they have the requisite 
population for a member of Congress, whether I will vote for that 
admission. Well, now, I regret exceedingly that he did not answer 
that interrogatory himself before he put it to me, in order that we 
might understand, and not be left to infer, on which side he is. Mr. 
Trumbull, during the last session of Congress, t voted from the be- 
ginning to the end against the admission of Oregon, although a free 
State, because she had not the requisite population for a member of 
Congress. Mr. Trumbull would not consent, under any circum- 
stances, to let a State, free or slave, come into the Union until it 
had the requisite population. As Mr. Trumbull is in the field, 
fighting for Mr. Lincoln, I would like to have Mr. Lincoln answer 
his own question, and tell me whether he is fighting Trumbull on 
that issue or not. But I will answer his question. In reference to 
Kansas, it is my opinion, that as she has population enough to con- 
stitute a slave State, she has people enough for a free State. I will 
not make Kansas an exceptional case to the other States of the 
Union. I hold it to be a sound rule of universal application to re- 
quire a territory to contain the requisite population for a member 
of Congress, before it is admitted as a State into the Union. I 
made that proposition in the Senate in 1856, and I renewed it dur- 
ing the last session, in a bill providing that no territory of the 
United States should form a constitution and apply for admission, 
until it had the requisite population. On another occasion I pro- 
posed that neither Kansas, nor any other territory, should be ad- 
mitted until it had the requisite population. Congress did not 
adopt any of my propositions containing this general rule, but did 
make an exception of Kansas. I will stand by that exception. 
Either Kansas must come in as a free State, with whatever popula- 
tion she may have, or the rule must be applied to all the other ter- 
ritories alike. I therefore answer at once, that it having been de- 
cided that Kansas has people enough for a slave State, I hold that 
she has enough for a free State. I hope Mr. Lincoln is satisfied 
with my answer ; and now I would like to get his answer to his own 
interrogatory, — whether or not he will vote to admit Kansas befoie 
she has the requisite population. I want to know whether he will 
vote to admit Oregon before that territory has the requisite popu- 
lation. Mr. Trumbull will not, and the same reason that commits 
Mr. Trumbull against the admission of Oregon, commits him against 



62 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

Kansas, even if she should apply for admission as a free State. If 
there is any sincerity, any truth, in the argument of Mr. Trumbull 
in the Senate, against the admission of Oregon, because she had not 
93,420 people, although her population was larger than that of 
Kansas, he stands pledged against the admission of both Oregon 
and Kansas until they have 93,420 inhabitants. I would like Mr. 
Lincoln to answer this question. I would like him to take his own 
medicine. If he differs with Mr. Trumbull, let him answer his ar- 
gument against the admissiou of Oregon, instead of poking ques- 
tions at me. 

The next question propounded to me by Mr. Lincoln is, can 
the people of a territory, in any lawful way, against the wishes of 
any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from their limits 
prior to the formation of a State constitution ? I answer emphat- 
ically, as Mr. Lincoln has heard me answer a hundred times from 
every stump in Illinois, that in my opinion the people of a territory 
can, by lawful means, exclude slavery from their limits prior to the 
formation of a State constitution. Mr. Lincoln knew that I had 
answered that question over and over again. He heard me argue 
the Nebraska bill on that principle all over the State in 1854, in 
1855, and in 1856, and he has no excuse for pretending to be in 
doubt as to my position on that question. It matters not what way 
the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract ques- 
tion, whether slavery may or may not, go into a territory under 
the Constitution, the people have the lawful means to introduce it or 
exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a 
day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police 
regulations. Those police regulations can only be established by 
the local legislature, and if the people are opposed to slavery, they 
will elect representatives to that body, who will, by unfriendly 
legislation, effectually prevent the introduction of it into their 
midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation will 
favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the 
Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still, the right of 
the people to make a slave territory, or a free territory, is perfect 
and complete under the Nebraska bill. I hope Mr. Lincoln deems 
my answer satisfactory on that point. 

In this connection, I will notice the charge which he has intro- 
duced in relation to Mr. Chase's amendment. I thought that I had 
chased that amendment out of Mr. Lincoln's brain at Ottawa ; but, 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 63 

it seems, tliat still haunts his imagination, and he is not yet satisfied. 
I had supposed that he would be ashamed to press that question 
further. He is a lawyer, and has been a member of Congress, and 
h'.s oceupied his time, and amused you, by telling you about parlia- 
mentary proceedings. He ought to have known better than to 
Ty to palm off his miserable impositions upon this intelligent audi- 
ance. The Nebraska bill provided that the legislative power, and 
authority of the said territory, should extend to all rightful subjects 
of legislation, consistent with the organic act, and the Constitution 
of the United States. It did not make any exception as to slavery, 
but gave all the power, that it was possible for Congress to give, 
without violating the Constitution, to the territorial legislature, with 
no exception or limitation on the subject of slavery at all. The 
language of that bill, which I have quoted, gave the full power and 
the full authority over the subject of slavery, affirmatively and neg- 
atively, to introduce it or exclude it, so far as the Constitution of 
the United States would permit. What more could Mr. Chase give 
by his amendment ? Nothing. He offered his amendment for the 
identical purpose for which Mr. Lincoln is using it, to enable dema- 
gogues in the country to try and deceive the people. 

His amendment was to this effect. It provided that the legisla- 
ture should have the power to exclude slavery : and General Cass 
suggested, "why not give the power to introduce as well as exclude ?" 
The answer was, they have the power already in the bill to do both. 
Chase was afraid his amendment would be adopted if he put the 
alternative proposition, and so make it fair both ways, but would 
not yield. He offered it for the purpose of having it rejected. He of- 
fered it, as he has himself avowed over and over again, simply to make 
capital out of it for the stump. He expected that it would be capital 
for small politicians in the country, and that they would make an 
effort to deceive the people with it ; and he wai not mistaked ; for 
Lincoln is carrying out the plan admirably. Lincoln knows that 
the Nebraska bill, without Chase's amendment, gave all the power 
which the Constitution would permit. Could Congress confer any 
more V Could Congress go beyond the Constitution of the country ? 
We gave all a full grant, with no exception in regard to slavery 
one way or the other. We left that question as we left all others, to 
be decided by the people for themselves, just as they pleased. I 
will not occupy my time on this question. I have argued it before, 
all over Illinois. I have argued it in this beautiful city of Free- 



C4 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

port ; I have argued in the North, the South, the East, and the 
West, avowing the same sentiments and the same principles. I 
have not been afraid to avow my sentiments up here, for fear I 
■would be trotted down into Egypt. 

The third question which Mr. Lincoln presented, is, if the 
Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that a State of 
this Union cannot exclude slavery from its own limits, will I submit 
to it ? I am amazed that Lincoln should ask such a question. (" A 
schoolboy knows better,") Yes, a schoolboy does know better. Mr. 
Lincoln's object is to cast an imputation upon the Supreme Court. 
lie knows that there never was but one man in America, claiming 
any degree of intelligence or decency, who ever for a moment 
pretended such a thing. It is true that the Washington Union., in 
an article published on the 1 7th of last December, did put forth that 
doctrine, and I denounced the article on the floor of the Senate, in 
a speech which Mr. Lincoln now pretends was against the Presi- 
dent. The Union had claimed that slavery had a right to go into 
the free States, and that any provision in the Constitution or laws of 
the free States to the contrary were null and void. I denounced it 
in the Senate, as I said before, and I was the first man who did. 
Lincoln's friends, Trumbull, and Seward, and Hale and Wilson, 
and the whole Black Republican side of the Senate, were silent. 
They left it to me to denounce it. And what was the reply made 
to me on that occasion ? Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, got up and 
undertook to lecture me on the ground that I ought not to have 
deemed the article worthy of notice, and ought not to have replied 
to it ; that there was not one man, woman or child south of the 
Potomac, in any slave State, who did not repudiate any such pre- 
tension. Mr. Lincoln knows that that reply was made on the spot, 
and yet now he asks this question. He might as well ask me, 
suppose Mr. Lincoln should steal a horse, would I sanction it ; and 
it would be as genteel in me to ask him, in the event he stole a 
horse, what ought to be done with him. He casts an imputation 
upon the Supreme Court of the United States, by supposing that 
they would violate the Constitution of the United States. I tell him 
that such a thing is not possible. It would be an act of moral trea- 
son that no man on the bench could ever descend to. Mr. Lincoln, 
himself, would never in his partisan feelings, so far forget what was 
right, as to be guilty of such an act. 

The fourth question of Mr. Lincoln is, are you in favor of 



OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 65 

acquiring additional territory, in disregard as to how such acquisi- 
tion may affect the Union on the slavery questions ? This question 
is very ingeniously and cunningly put. 

The Black Republican creed lays it down expressly, that under 
no circumstances shall we acquire any more territory unless slavery 
is first prohibited in the country. I ask Mr. Lincoln whether he is 
in favor of that proposition. Are you (addressing Mr. Lincoln) 
opposed to the acquisition of any more territory, under any circum- 
stances, unless slavery is prohibited in it ? That he does not like to 
answer. When I ask him whether he stands up to that article in 
the platform of his party, he turns, Yankee-fashion, and without 
answering it, asks me whether I am in favor of acquiring territory 
without regard to how it may affect the Union on the slavery 
question. I answer, that whenever it becomes necessary, in our 
growth and progress, to acquire more territory, that I am in favor; 
of it, without reference to the question of slavery ; and when we 
have acquired it, I will leave the people free to do as they please, 
either to make it slave or free territory, as they prefer. It is idle to 
tell me or you that we have territory enough. Our fathers sup- 
posed that we had enough when our territory extended to the 
Mississippi River, but a few years' growth and expansion satisfied 
them that we needed more, and the Louisiana Territory, from the 
west branch of the Mississippi to the British Possessions, was ac- 
quired. Then we acquired Oregon, then California and New Mexico. 
We have enough now for the present, but this is a young and a grow- 
ing nation. It swarms as often as a hive of bees, and as new swarms 
are turned out each year, there must be hives in which they 
can gather and make their honey. In less than fifteen years, if the 
same progress that has distinguished this country for the last fifteen 
years, continues, every foot of vacant land between this and the 
Pacific ocean, owned by the United States, will be occupied. Will 
you not continue to increase at the end of fifteen years as well as 
now ? I tell you, increase, and multiply, and expand, is the law of 
this nation's existence. You cannot limit this great Republic by 
mere boundary lines, saying, " thus far shalt thou go, and no fur- 
ther." Any one of you gentlemen might as well say to a son 
twelve years old, that he is big enough, and must not grow any 
larger, and in order to prevent his growth put a hoop around him to 
keep him to his present size. What would be the result? either 
the hoop must burst and be rent asunder, or the child must die. 
5 



66, LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

So it would be with this great nation. With our natural increase, 
growing with a rapidity unknown in any other part of the globe, 
with the tide of emigration that is fleeing from despotism in the 
old world, to seek refuge in our own, there is a constant torreut 
pouring into this country that requires more land, more territory 
upon which to settle ; and just as fast as our interests and our destiny 
require additional territory in the North, in the South, or on the 
Islands of the ocean, I am for it, and when we acquire it, will leave 
the people, according to the Nebraska bill, free to do as they please 
on the subject of slavery and every other question. 

I trust now that Mr. Lincoln will deem himself answered on his 
four points. He racked his brain so much in devising these four 
questions that he exhausted himself, and had not strength enough to 
invent the others. As soon as he is able to hold a council with his 
advisers, Lovejoy, Farnsworth, and Fred Douglass, he will frame 
and propound others. [" Good, good."] You Black Republicans, 
who say good, I have no doubt think that they are all good men. 1 
have reason to recollect that some people in this country think that 
Fred Douglass is a very good man. The last time I came here to 
make a speech, while talking from the stand to you, people of Free- 
port, as I am doing to-day, I saw a carriage, and a magnificent one 
it was, drive up and take a position on the outside of the crowd ; a 
beautiful young lady was sitting on the box-seat, whilst Fred Doug- 
lass and her mother reclined inside, and the owner of the carriage 
acted as driver. I saw this in your own town. [ " What of it ? " ~ 
All I have to say of it is this, that if you, Black Republicans, think 
that the negro ought to be on a social equality with your wives and 
daughters, and ride in a carriage with your wife, whilst you drive 
the team, you have perfect right to do so. I am told that one of 
Fred Douglass's kinsmen, another rich black negro, is now travelling 
in this part of the State making speeches for his friend Lincoln as 
the champion of black men. [" What have you to say against it?"] 
All I have to say on that subject is, that those of you who believe 
that the negro is your equal and ought to be on an equality with 
you socially, politically, and legally, have a right to entertain those 
opinions, and of course will vote for Mr. Lincoln. 

I have a word to say on Mr. Lincoln's answer to the interroga- 
tories contained in my speech at Ottawa, and which he has pre- 
tended to reply to here to-day. Mr. Lincoln makes a great parade 
of the fact that I quoted a platform as having been adopted by the 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 67 

Black Republican party at Springfield in 1854, which, it turns out^ 
■was adopted at another place. Mr. Lincoln loses sight of the thing 
itself in his ecstasies over the mistake I made in stating the place 
where it was done. He thinks that that platform was not adopted 
on the right " spot." 

When I put the direct questions to Mr. Lincoln to ascertain 
whether he now stands pledged to that creed, — to the unconditional 
repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, a refusal to admit any more slave 
States into the Union, even if the people want them, a determina- 
tion to apply the Wilmot Proviso, not only to all the territory we 
now have, but all that we may hereafter acquire, he refused to 
answer, and his followers say, in excuse, that the resolutions upon 
which I based my interrogatories were not adopted at the " r'ujht 
spot." Lincoln and his political friends are great on " spots." In 
Congress, as a representative of this State, he declared the Mexican 
war to be unjust and infamous, and would not support it, or acknow- 
ledge his own country to be right in the contest, because he said 
that American blood was not shed on American soil, in the " right 
spot." And now he cannot answer the questions I put to him at 
Ottawa, because the resolutions I read were not adopted at the 
" right spot." It may be possible that I was led into an error as to 
the spot on which the resolutions I then read were proclaimed, but 
I was not and am not in error as to the fact of their forming the 
basis of the creed of the Republican party when that party was first 
organized. I will state to you the evidence I had, and upon which 
I relied for my statement that the resolutions in question were 
adopted at Springfield on the 5th of October, 1854. Although I was 
aware that such resolutions had been passed in this district, and nearly 
all the northern Congressional Districts and County Conventions, I 
had not noticed whether or not they had been adopted by any State 
Convention. In 185G, a debate arose in Congress between Major 
Thomas L. Han-is, of the Springfield District, and Mr. Norton, of 
the Joliet District, on political matters connected with our State, 
in the course of which, Major Harris quoted those resolutions as 
having been passed by the first Republican State Convention that 
ever assembled in Illinois. I knew that Major Harris was remark- 
able for his accuracy, that he was a very conscientious and sincere- 
man, and I also noticed that Norton did not question the accuracy 
of this statement. I therefore took it for granted that it was so, and 
the other day, when I concluded to use the resolutions at Ottawa, I 



68 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

wrote to Charles H. Lanphier, editor of the State Register, at Spring- 
field, calling his attention to them, telling him that I had been in- 
formed that Major Harris was lying sick at Springfield, and desiring 
him to call upon him and ascertain all the facts concerning the reso- 
lutions, the time and place where they were adopted. In reply, 
Mr. Lanphier sent me two copies of his paper, which I have here. 
The first is a copy of the State Register, published at Springfield, 
Mr. Lincoln's own town, on the 16th of October, 1854, only eleven 
days after the adjournment of the Convention, from which I desire 
to read the following : — 

" During the late discussions in this city, Lincoln made a speech, 
to which Judge Douglas replied. In Lincoln's speech he took the 
broad ground that, according to the Declaration of Independence, 
the whites and blacks are equal. From this he drew the conclusion, 
which he several times repeated, that the white man had no right 
to pass laws for the government of the black man without the nig- 
ger's consent. This speech of Lincoln's was heard and applauded 
by all the Abolitionists assembled in Springfield. So soon as Mr. 
Lincoln was done speaking, Mr. Codding arose and requested all 
the delegates to the Black Republican Convention to withdraw into 
the Senate chamber. They did so, and after long deliberation, they 
laid down the following Abolition platform as the plattbrm on which 
they stood. We call the particular attention of all our readers to 
it." 

Then follows the identical platform, word for word, which I read 
at Ottawa. Now, that was published in Mr. Lincoln's own town, 
eleven days after the Convention was held, and it has remained on 
record up to this day never contradicted. 

Whan I quoted the resolutions at Ottawa, and questioned Mr. 
Lincoln in relation to them, he said that his name was on the com- 
mittee that reported them, but he did not serve, nor did he think ho 
served, because he was, or thought he was, in Tazewell county at 
the time the Convention was in session. He did not deny that the 
resolutions were passed by the Springfield Convention. He did not 
know better, and evidently thought that they were, but afterwards 
his friends declared that they had discovered that they varied in 
some respects from the resolutions passed by that Convention. I 
have shown you that I had good evidence for believing that the 
resolutions had been passed at Springfield. Mr. Lincoln ought to 
have known better ; but not a word is said about his ignorance on 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 69 

the subject, whilst I, notwithstanding the circumstances, am accused 
of forger jr. 

Now, I will show you that if I have made a mistake as to the place 
where these resolutions were adopted, — and when I get down to 
Springfield, I will investigate the matter, and see whether or not I 
have, — that the principles they enunciate were adopted as the Black 
Republican platform [" white, white"] in the various counties and 
Congressional Districts throughout the north end of the State in 
18.54. This platform was adopted in nearly every county that gave 
a Black Republican majority for the legislature in that year, and 
here is a man [pointing to Mr. Denio, who sat on the stand near 
Deacon Bross] who knows as well as any living man that it was the 
creed of the Black Republican party at that time. I would be will- 
ing to call Denio as a witness, or any other honest man belonging 
to that party. I will now read the resolutions adopted at the Rock- 
ford Convention on the 30th of August, 1854, which nominated 
"VVashburne for Congress. You elected him on the following plat- 
form : — 

" Resolved, That the continued and increasing aggressions of 
slavery in our country are destructive of the best rights of a free 
people, and that such aggressions cannot be successfully resisted 
without the united political action of all good men. 

" Resolved, That the citizens of the United States hold in their 
hands peaceful, constitutional, and efficient remedy against the en- 
croachments of the slave power, the ballot-box, and, if that remedy 
is boldly and wisely applied, the principles of liberty and eternal 
justice will be established. 

" Resolved, That we accept this issue forced upon us by the slave 
power, and, in defence of freedom, will co-operate and be known 
as Republicans, pledged to the accomplishment of the following 
purposes : — 

" To bring the Administration of the Government back to the 
control of first principles ; to restore Kansas and Nebraska to the 
position of free Territories; to repeal and entirely abrogate the 
Fugitive Slave Law ; to restrict slavery to those States in which it 
exists ; to prohibit the admission of any more slave States into the 
Union; to exclude slavery from all the territories over which the 
General Government has exclusive jurisdiction, and to resist tho 
acquisition of any more Territories unless the introduction of slavery 
therein forever shall have been prohibited. 



70 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

" Resolved, That in furtherance of these principles we will use 
such constitutional and lawful means as shall seem best adapted to 
their accomplishment, and that we will support no man for office 
under the General or State Government who is not positively com- 
mitted to the support of these principles, and whose personal 
character and conduct is not a guaranty that he is reliable, and 
shall abjure all party allegiance and ties. 

" Resolved, That we cordially invite persons of all former politi- 
cal parties whatever, in favor of the object expressed in the above 
resolutions, to unite with us in carrying them into effect." 

Well, you think that is a very good platform, do you not ? If 
you do, if you approve it now, and think it is all right, you will not 
join with those men who say that I libel you by calling these your 
principles, will you ? Now, Mr. Lincoln complains : Mr. Lincoln 
charges that I did you and him injustice by saying that this was 
the platform of your party. I am told that Washburne made a 
speech in Galena last night, in which he abused me awfully for 
bringing to light this platform, on which he was elected to Congress. 
He thought that you had forgotten it, as he and Mr. Lincoln desires 
to. He did not deny but that you had adopted it, and that he had 
subscribed to and was pledged by it, but he did not think it was 
fair to call it up and remind the people that it was their platform. 
' But I am glad to find that you are more honest in your abolition- 
ism than your leaders, by avowing that it is your platform, and right 
in your opinion. 

In the adoption of that platform, you not only declared that you 
would resist the admission of any more slave States, and work for 
the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law, but you pledged yourselves 
not to vote for any man for State or Federal offices who was not 
committed to these principles. You were thus committed. Similar 
resolutions to those were adopted in your County Convention here ; 
and now, with your admissions that they are your platform and 
embody your sentiments, now as they did then, what do you think 
of Mr. Lincoln, your candidate for the U. S. Senate, who is at- 
tempting to dodge the responsibility of this platform, because it 
was not adopted in the right spot. I thought that it was adopted 
in Springfield, but it turns out it was not, that it was adopted at 
Rockford, and in the various counties which comprise this Congres- 
sional District. When I get into the next district, I will show that 
the same platform was adopted there, and so on through the State, 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 71 

until I nail the responsibility of it upon the back of the Black Re- 
publican party throughout the State. 

A voice — " Couldn't you modify and call it brown ? " 
Mr. Douglas — Not a bic. I thought that you were becoming a 
little brown when your members in Congress voted for the Critten- 
den-Montgomery bill, but since you have backed out from that 
position and gone back to Abolitionism, you are black and not 
brown. 

Gentlemen, I have shown you what your platform was in 1854. 
You still adhere to it. The same platform was adopted by nearly 
all the counties where the Black Republican party had a majority 
in 1854. I wish now to call your attention to the action of your 
representatives in the legislature when they assembled together at 
Springfield. In the first place, you must remember that this was 
the organization of a new party. It is so declared in the resolutions 
themselves, which say that you are going to dissolve all old party 
ties and call the new party Republican. The old Whig party was 
to have its throat cut from ear to ear, and the Democratic party 
was to be annihilated and blotted out of existence, whilst in lieu of 
these parties the Black Republican party was to be organized on 
this Abolition platform. You know who the chief leaders were in 
breaking up and destroying these two great parties. Lincoln on 
the one hand and Trumbull on the other, being disappointed poli- 
ticians, and having retired or been driven to obscurity by an out- 
raged constituency because of their political sins, formed a scheme 
to abolitionize the two parties and lead the old line Whigs and old 
line Democrats captive, bound hand and foot, into the Abolition 
camp. Giddings, Chase, Fred Douglass, and Lovejoy, were here to 
christen them whenever they were brought in. Lincoln went to 
work to dissolve the old line Whig party. Clay was dead, and 
although the sod was not yet green on his grave, this man undertook 
to bring into disrepute those great Compromise measures of 1850, 
with which Clay and Webster were identified. Up to 1854 the 
old Whig party and the Democratic; party had stood on a common 
platform so far as this slavery question was concerned. You Whigs 
and we Democrats differed about the bank, the tariff, distribution, 
the specie circular and the sub-treasury, but we agreed on this 
slavery question, and the true mode of preserving the peace and 
harmony of the Union. The Compromise measures of 1850 were 
introduced by Clay, were defended by Webster, and supported by 



72 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

Cass, and were approved by Fillmore, and sanctioned by the Na- 
tional men of both parties. They constituted a common plank 
upon which both Whigs and Democrats stood. In 1852 the Whin; 
party, in its last National Convention at Baltimore, indorsed and 
approved these measures of Clay, and so did the National Conven- 
tion of the Democratic party held that same year. Thus the old 
line Whigs and the old line Democrats stood pledged to the great 
principle of self-government, which guaranties to the people of each 
territory the right to decide the slavery question for themselves. 
In 1854, after the death of Clay and Webster, Mr. Lincoln, on the 
part of the Whigs, undertook to abolitionize the Whig party, by 
dissolving it, transferring the members into the Abolition camp, and 
making them train under Giddings, Fred Douglass, Lovejoy, Chase, 
Farnsworth, and other Abolition leaders. Trumbull undertook to 
dissolve the Democratic party by taking old Democrats into the Abo- 
lition camp. Mr. Lincoln was aided in his efforts by many leading 
Whigs throughout the State". Your member of Congress, Mr. Wash- 
burne, being one of the most active. Trumbull was aided by many 
renegades from the Democratic party, among whom were John 
Wentworth, Tom Turner, and others, with whom you are familiar. 

[Mr. Turner, who was one of the moderators, here interposed 
and said that he had drawn the resolutions which Senator Douglas 
had read.] 

Mr. Douglas — Yes, and Turner says that he drew these resolu- 
tions. [" Hurra for Turner," " Hurra for Douglas."] That is 
rio-ht, give Turner cheers for drawing the resolutions if you approve 
them. If he drew those resolutions he will not deny that they are 
the creed of the Black Republican party. 

Mr. Turner — " They are our creed exactly." 

Mr. Douglas — And yet Lincoln denies that he stands on 
them. Mr. Turner says that the creed of the Black Republican 
party is the admission of no more slave States, and yet Mr. Lincoln 
declares that he would not like to be placed in a position where he 
would have to vote for them. All I have to say to friend Lincoln 
is, that I do not think there is much danger of his being placed in 
such a position. As Mr. Lincoln would be very sorry to be placed 
in such an embarrassing position, as to be obliged to vote on the ad- 
mission of any more slave States, I propose, out of mere kindness, 
to relieve him from any such necessity. 

When the bargain between Lincoln and Trumbull was completed 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 73 

for abolitionizing the Whig and Democratic parties, they " spread " 
over the State, Lincoln still pretending to be an old line Whig, in 
order to " rope " in the Whigs, and Trumbull pretending to be as 
good a Democrat as he ever was, in order to coax the Democrats 
over into the Abolition ranks. They played the part that " decoy 
ducks " play down on the Potomac River. In that part of the 
country they make artificial ducks, and put them on the water in 
places where the wild ducks are to be found, for the purpose of 
decoying them. Well, Lincoln and Trumbull played the part 
of these " decoy ducks," and deceived enough old line Whigs and 
old line Democrats to elect a Black Republican legislature. When 
that legislature met, the first thing it did was to elect, as Speaker of 
the House, the very man who is now boasting that he wrote the 
Abolition platform on which Lincoln will not stand. I want to 
know of Mr. Turner, whether or not, when he was elected, he was 
a good embodiment of Republican principles ? 
Mr. Turner — " I hope I was then, and am now." 
Mi . Douglas — He swears that he hopes he was then, and is now. 
He wrote that Black Republican platform, and is satisfied with it 
now. I admire and acknowledge Turner's honesty. Every man of 
you know that what he says about these resolutions being the plat- 
form of the Black Republican party is true, and you also know that 
each one of these men who are shuffling, and trying to deny it, are 
only trying to cheat the people out of their votes for the purpose of 
deceiving them still more after the election. I propose to trace this 
thing a little further, in order that you can see what additional evi- 
dence there is to fasten this revolutionary platform upon the Black 
Republican party. When the legislature assembled, there was an 
United States Senator to elect in the place of Gen. Shields, and 
before they proceeded to ballot, Lovejoy insisted on laying down cer- 
tain principles by which to govern the party. It has been published 
to the world, and satisfactorily proven, that there was, at the time 
the alliance was made between Trumbull and Lincoln to abolition- 
ize the two parties, an agreement that Lincoln should take Shield's 
place in the United States Senate, and Trumbull should have mine 
so soon as they could conveniently get rid of me. When Lincoln 
was beaten for Shield's place, in a manner I will refer to in a few 
minutes, he felt very sore and restive ; his friends grumbled, and 
some of them came out and charged that the most infamous treach- 
ery had been practised against him ; that the bargain was that Lin- 



74 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

coin was to have had Shield's place, and Trumbull was to have waited 
for mine, but that Trumbull, having the control of a few abolition- 
ized Democrats, he prevented them from voting for Lincoln, thus 
keeping him within a few votes of an election, until he succeeded 
in forcing the party to drop him and elect Trumbull. Well, Trum- 
bull having cheated Lincoln, his friends made a fuss, and in order 
to keep them and Lincoln quiet, the party were obliged to come 
forward, in advance, at the last State election, and make a pledge 
that they would go for Lincoln, and nobody else. Lincoln could 
not be silenced in any other way. 

Now there are a great many Black Republicans of you who d3 
not know this thing was done. [" White, white," and great clamor.] 
I wish to remind you that while Mr. Lincoln was speaking, there 
was not a Democrat vulgar and blackguard enough to interrupt 
him. But I know that the shoe is pinching you. I am clinching 
Lincoln now, and you are scared to death for the result. I have 
seen this thing before. I have seen men make appointments for 
joint discussions, and the moment their man has been heard, try to 
interrupt and prevent a fair hearing of the other side. I have 
seen your mobs before, and defy your wrath. [Tremendous ap- 
plause.] My friends, do not cheer, for I need my whole time. 
The object of the opposition is to occupy my attention in order to 
prevent me from giving the whole evidence, and nailing this double 
dealing on the Black Republican party. As I have before said, Love- 
joy demanded a declaration of principles on the part of the Black 
Republicans of the legislature before going into an election for United 
States Senator. He offered the following preamble and resolutions 
which I hold in my hand : — 

" Whereas, Human slavery is a violation of the principles of 
natural and revealed rights ; and whereas, the fathers of the Revo- 
lution, fully imbued with the spirit of these principles, declared 
freedom to be the inalienable birthright of all men ; and whereas, the 
preamble to the Constitution of the United States avers that that 
instrument was ordained to establish justice, and secure the blessings 
of liberty to ourselves and our posterity ; and whereas, in furtherance 
of the above principles, slavery was forever prohibited in the old 
Northwest Territory, and more recently in all that territory lying west 
and north of the State of Missouri, by the act of the Federal Gov- 
ernment ; and whereas, the repeal of the prohibition last referred to 
was contrary to the wishes of the people of Illinois, a violation of an 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 75 

implied compact, long deemed sacred by the citizens of the United 
States, and a wide departure from the uniform action of the Gen- 
eral Government in relation to the extension of slavery ; therefore, 

"Resolved, by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring 
therein, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Rep- 
resentatives requested to introduce, if not otherwise introduced, and 
to vote for a bill to restore such prohibition to the aforesaid territo- 
ries, and also to extend a similar prohibition to all territory which 
now belongs to the United States, or which may hereafter come 
under their jurisdiction. 

" Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our 
Representatives requested, to vote against the admission of any 
State into the Union, the constitution of which does not prohibit 
slavery, whether the territory out of which such State may have 
been formed shall have been acquired by conquest, treaty, purchase, 
or from original territory of the United States. 

" Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our 
Representatives requested, to introduce, and vote for a bill to repeal 
an act entitled ' an act respecting fugitives from justice, and per- 
sons escaping from the service of their masters ; ' and, failing in that, 
for such a modification of it as shall secure the right of habeas cor- 
pus, and trial by jury, before the regularly constituted authorities 
of the State, to all persons claimed as owing service or labor." 

Those resolutions were introduced by Mr. Lovejoy immediately 
preceding the election of Senator. They declared, first, that the 
Wilmot Proviso must be applied to all territory north of 36 deg. 30 
min. Secondly, that it must be applied to all territory south of 3G 
deg. 30 min. Thirdly, that it must be applied to all territory now 
owned by the United States ; and finally, that it must be applied to 
all territory hereafter to be acquired by the United States. The 
next resolution declares that no more slave States shall be admitted 
into this Union, under any circumstanees whatever, no matter 
whether they are formed out of territory now owned by us, or that 
we may hereafter acquire, by treaty, by Congress, or in any manner 
whatever. The next resolution demands the unconditional repeal 
of the Fugitive Slave Law, although its unconditional repeal would 
leave no provision for carrying out that clause of the Constitution 
of the United States, which guaranties the surrender of fugitives. 
If they could not get an unconditional repeal, they demanded that 
that law should be so modified as to make it as nearly useless as 



76 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

possible. Now, I want to show you who voted for these resolutions. 
When the vote was taken on the first resolution it was decided in 
the affirmative, — yeas 41 , nays 32. You will find that this is a strict 
party vote, between the Democrats on the one hand, and the Black 
Republicans on the other. [Cries of " White, white," and clamor.] 
I know your name, and always call things by their right name. 
The point I wish to call your attention to, is this : that these reso- 
lutions were adopted on the 7th day of February, and that on the 
8th they went into an election for a United States Senator, and 
that day every man who voted for these resolutions, with but two 
exceptions, voted for Lincoln for the United States Senate. [" Give 
us their names."] I will read the names over to you if you want 
them, but I believe your object is to occupy my time. 

On the next resolution the vote stood, — yeas 33, nays 40, 
and on the third resolution, — yeas 35, nays 47. I wish to 
impress it upon you, that every man who voted for those reso- 
lutions, with but two exceptions, voted on the next day for Lin- 
coln for United States Senator. Bear in mind that the members 
who thus voted for Lincoln, were elected to the legislature, pledged 
to vote for no man for office under the State or Federal Govern- 
ment, who was not committed to this Black Republican platform. 
They were all so pledged. Mr. Turner, who stands by me, and 
who then represented you, and who says that he wrote those reso- 
lutions, voted for Lincoln, when he was pledged not to do so unless 
Lincoln was in favor of those resolutions. I now ask Mr. Turner 
[turning to Mr. Turner], did you violate your pledge in voting for 
Mr. Lincoln, or did he commit himself to your platform before you 
cast your vote for him ? 

I could go through the whole list of names here, and show you 
that all the Black Republicans in the legislature, who voted for 
Mr. Lincoln, had voted on the day previous for these resolutions. 
For instance, here are the names of Sargent and Little, of Jo 
Daviess and Carroll, Thomas J. Turner of Stephenson, Lawrence 
of Boone, and McIIenry, Swan of Lake, Pinckney of Ogle county, 
and Lyman of Winnebago. Thus you see every member from your 
Congressional District voted for Mr. Lincoln, and they were pledged 
not to vote for him unless he was committed to the doctrine of no 
more slave States, the prohibition of slavery in the territories, and 
the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. Mr. Lincoln tells you to-day 
that he is not pledged to any such doctrine. Either Mr. Lincoln 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 77 

was then committed to those propositions, or Mr. Turner violated 
his pledges to you when he voted for him. Either Lincoln was 
pledged to each one of those propositions, or else every Black Re- 
publican representative from this congressional district violated his 
pledge of honor to his constituents by voting for him. I ask you 
which horn of the dilemma will you take ? Will you hold Lincoln 
up to the platform of his party, or will you accuse every represen- 
tative you had in the legislature of violating his pledge of honor to 
his constituents ? There is no escape for you. Either Mr. Lincoln 
was committed to those propositions, or your members violated ihcir 
faith. Take either horn of the dilemma you choose. There is no 
dodging the question ; I want Lincoln's answer. lie says he was 
not pledged to repeal the Fugitive Slave Law, that he does not quite 
like to do it; he will not introduce a law to repeal it, but thinks 
there ought to be some law ; he does not tell what it ought to be ; 
upon the whole, he is altogether undecided, and don't know what 
to think or do. That is the substance of his answer upon the repeal 
of the Fugitive Slave Law. I put the question to him distinctly, 
whether he indorsed that part of the Black Republican platform 
which calls for the entire abrogation and repeal of the Fugitive 
Slave Law. He answers no ! that he does not indorse that ; but he 
does not tell what he is for, or what he will vote for. His answer 
is, in fact, no answer at all. Why cannot he speak out, and say 
what he is for and what he will do ? 

In regard to there being no more slave States, he is not pledged 
to that. He would not like, he says, to be put in a position where 
he would have to vote one way or another upon that question. I 
pray you, do not put him in a position that would embarrass him so 
much. Gentlemen, if he goes to the Senate, he may be put in 
that position, and then which way will he vote ? 

[A voice — " How will you vote? "] 

Mr. Douglas — I will vote for the admission of just such a State 
as by the form of their constitution the people show they want ; if 
they want slavery, they shall have it; if they prohibit slavery, it 
shall k« prohibited. They can form their institutions to please 
themselves, subject only to the Constitution ; and I for one stand 
ready to receive them into the Union. Why cannot your Black 
Republican candidates talk out as plain as that when they are ques- 
tioned ? 

I do not want to cheat any man out of his vote. No man is de- 



78 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

ceived In regard to my principles if I have the power to express 
myself in terms explicit enough to convey my ideas. 

Mr. Lincoln made a speech when he was nominated for the 
United States Senate which covers all these Abolition platforms. 
He there lays down a proposition so broad in its abolitionism as to 
cover the whole ground. 

" In my opinion it [the slavery agitation] will not cease until a 
crisis shall have been reached and passed. ' A house divided 
against itself cannot stand.' I believe this Government cannot en- 
dure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the 
house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will 
become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of 
slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the 
public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ulti- 
mate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shall 
become alike lawful in all the States, — old as well as new, North as 
well as South." 

There you find that Mr. Lincoln lays down the doctrine that 
this Union cannot endure divided as our fathers made it, with free 
and slave States. He says they must all become one thing, or all 
the other ; that they must all be free or all slave, or else the Union 
cannot continue to exist. It being his opinion that to admit any 
more slave States, to continue to divide the Union into free and 
slave States, will dissolve it, I want to know of Mr. Lincoln whether 
he will vote for the admission of another slave State. 

He tells you the Union cannot exist unless the States are all free 
or all slave ; he tells you that he is opposed to making them all 
slave, and hence he is for making them all free, in order that the 
Union may exist ; and yet he will not say that he will not vote 
against another slave State, knowing that the Union must be dis- 
solved if he votes for it. I ask you if that is fair dealing? The 
true intent and inevitable conclusion to be drawn from his first 
Springfield speech is, that he is opposed to the admission of any 
more slave States under any circumstances. If he is so opposed, 
why not say so? If he believes this Union cannot endure divided 
into free and slave States, that they must all become free in order 
to save the Union, he is bound, as an honest man, to vote against 
any more slave States. If he believes it he is bound to do it. Show 
me that it is my duty in order to save the Union to do a particular 
act, and I will do it if the Constitution does not prohibit it. I am 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 79 

not for the dissolution of the Union under any circumstances. I will 
pursue no course of conduct that will give just cause for the disso- 
lution of the Union. The hope of the friends of freedom through- 
out the world rests upon the perpetuity of this Union. The down- 
trodden and oppressed people who are suffering under European 
despotism all look with hope and anxiety to the American Union 
as the only resting-place and permanent home of freedom and self 
government. 

Mr. Lincoln says that he believes that this Union cannot continue 
to endure with slave States in it, and yet he will not tell you dis- 
tinctly whether he will vote for or against the admission of any 
more slave States, but says he would not like to be put to the test. 
I do not think he will be put to the test. I do not think that the 
people of Illinois desire a man to represent them who would not 
like to be put to the test on the performance of a high constitutional 
duty. I will retire in shame from the Senate of the United States 
when I am not willing to be put to the test in the performance of 
my duty. I have been put to severe tests. I have stood by my 
principles in fair weather and in foul, in the sunshine and in the 
rain. I have defended the great principles of self-government 
here among you when Northern sentiment ran in a torrent against 
me, and I have defended that same great principle when Southern 
sentiment came down like an avalanche upon me. I was not afraid 
of any test they put to me. I knew I was right, — I knew my prin- 
ciples were sound, — I knew that the people would see in the end 
that I had done right, and I knew that the God of heaven would 
smile upon me if I was faithful in the performance of my duty. 

Mr. Lincoln makes a charge of corruption against the Supreme 
Court of the United States, aud two Presidents of the United 
States, and attempts to bolster it up by saying that I did the same 
against the Washington Union. Suppose I did make that charge 
of corruption against the Washington Union, when it was true, does 
that justify him in making a false charge against me and others? 
That is the question I would put. He says that at the time the 
Nebraska l>iil was introduced, and before it was passed, there was 
a conspiracy between the Judges of the Supreme Court, President 
Pierce, President Buchanan and myself by that bill, and the deuis- 
ion of the court to break down the barrier and establish slavery all 
over the Union. Does he not know that that charge is historically 
false as against President Buchanan ? lie knows that Mr. Bueha- 



80 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

nan was at that time in England, representing this country with 
distinguished ability at the Court of St. James, that he was there 
for a long time before, and did not return for a year or more after. 
He knows that to be true, and that fact proves his charge to be 
false as against Mr. Buchanan. Then again, I wish to call his 
attention to the fact that at the time the Nebraska bill was passed, 
the Dred Scott case was not before the Supreme Court at all ; it 
was not upon the docket of the Supreme Court ; it had not been 
brought there, and the judges in all probability knew nothing of it. 
Thus the history of the country proves the charge to be false as 
against them. As to President Pierce, his high character as a man 
of integrity and honor is enough to vindicate him from such a 
charge ; and as to myself, I pronounce the charge an infamous lie, 
whenever and wherever made, and by whomsoever made. I am 
willing that Mr. Lincoln should go and rake up every public act of 
mine, every measure I have introduced, report I have made, speech 
delivered, and criticise them, but when he charges upon me a cor- 
rupt conspiracy for the purpose of preserving the institutions of the 
country, I brand it as it deserves. I say the history of the country 
proves it to be false, and that it could not have been possible at the 
time. But now he tries to protect himself in this charge, because 
I made a charge against the Washington Union. My speech in the 
Senate, against the Washington Union, was made because it advo- 
cated a revolutionary doctrine, by declaring that the free States 
had not the right to prohibit slavery within their own limits. Be- 
cause I made that charge against the Washington Union, Mr. Lin- 
coln says it was a charge against Mr. Buchanan. Suppose it was; 
is Mr. Lincoln the peculiar defender of Mr. Buchanan ? Is he so 
interested in the Federal Administration, and so bound to it, that 
he must jump to the rescue and defend it from every attack that I 
may make against it ? I understand the whole thing. The Wash- 
ington Union, under that most corrupt of all men, Cornelius Wen- 
dell, is advocating Mr. Lincoln's claim to the Senate. Wendell 
was the printer of the last Black Republican house of representa- 
tives ; he was a candidate before the present Democratic house, 
but was ignominiously kicked out, and then he took the money 
witch he had made out of the public printing by means of the 
Black Republicans, bought the Washington Union, and is now 
publishing it in the name of the Democratic party, and advocating 
Mr. Lincoln's election to the Senate. Mr. Lincoln therefore con- 



OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLX. 81 

eiders an attack upon Wendell and bis corrupt gang as a personal 
attack upon him. This only proves what I have charged, that there 
is an alliance between Lincoln and his supporters, and the Federal 
office-holders of this State, and presidential aspirants out of it, to 
break me down at home. 

Mr. Lincoln feels bound to come in to the rescue of the Wash- 
ington Union. In that speech which I delivered in answer to the 
Washington Union, I made it distinctly against the Union, and 
against the Union alone. I did not choose to go beyond that. If I 
have occasion to attack the President's conduct, I will do it in lan- 
guage that will not be misunderstood. When I differed with the 
President, I spoke out so that you all heard me. That question 
passed away; it resulted in the triumph of my principle by allow- 
ing the people to do as they please, and there is^n end of the con- 
troversy. Whenever the great principle of self-government — the 
right of the people to make their own constitution, and come into 
the Union with slavery or without it, as they see proper, shall 
again arise, you will find me standing firm in defence of that prin- 
ciple, and fighting whoever fights it. If Mr. Buchanan stands, as I 
doubt not he will, by the recommendation contained in his mes- 
sage, that hereafter all State constitutions ought to be submitted to 
the people before the ad mission of the State into the Union, he 
will find me standing by. him firmly, shoulder to shoulder, in carry- 
ing it out. I know Mr. Lincoln's object ; he wants to divide the 
Democratic party, in order that he may defeat me and get to the 
Senate." 

Mr. Douglas's time here expired, and he stopped on the 
moment. 

MR. LINCOLN'S REJOINDER. 

My Friends : It will readily occur to you that I cannot, in half 
an hour, notice all the things that so able a man as Judge Douglas 
can say in an hour and a half; and I hope, therefore, if there be 
anything that he has said upon which you would like to hear some- 
thing from me, but which I omit to comment upon, you will bear in 
mind that it would be expecting an impossibility lor me to go over 
his whole ground. I can but take up some of the points that he 
has dwelt upon, and employ my half hour specially on them. 

The first thing I have to sav to you is a word in regard to Judge 
6 



82 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

Douglas's declaration about the " vulgarity and blackguardism " in 
the audience, — that no such thing, as he says, was shown by any 
Democrat while I was speaking. Now, I only wish, by way of re- 
ply on this subject, to say that while / was speaking, / used no 
" vulgarity or blackguardism " toward any Democrat. 

Now, my friends, I come to all this long portion of the Judge's 
speech, — perhaps half of it, — which he has devoted to the various 
resolutions and platforms that have been adopted in the different 
counties in the diiferent congressional districts, and in the Illinois 
legislature, — which he supposes are at variance with the positions 
I have assumed before you to-day. It is true that many of these 
resolutions are at variance with the positions I have here assumed. 
All I have to ask is that we talk reasonably and rationally about it. 
I happen to know, the Judge's opinion to the contrary notwith- 
standing, that I have never tried to conceal my opinions, nor tried 
to deceive any one in reference to them. He may go and exam- 
ine all the members who voted for me for United State? Senator in 
1855, after the election of 1854. They were pledged to certain 
things here at home, and were determined to have pledges from 
me, and if he will find any of these persons who will tell him any- 
thing inconsistent with what I say now, I will resign, or rather 
retire from the race, and give him no more trouble. The plain 
truth is this: At the introduction of the Nebraska policy, we be- 
lieved there was a new era being introduced in the history of the 
Republic, which tended to the spread and perpetuation of slavery. 
But in our opposition to that measure we did not agree with one 
another in everything. The people in the north end of the State 
were for stronger measures of opposition than we of the central 
and southern portions of the State, but we were all opposed to the 
Nebraska doctrine. We had that one feeling and that one sen- 
timent in common. You at the north end met in your conven- 
tions and passed your resolutions. We in the middle of the State 
and further south did not hold such conventions and pass the 
same resolutions, although we had in general a common view and 
a common sentiment. So that these meetings which the Judge 
has alluded to, and the resolutions he has read from, were local, 
and did not spread over the whole State. We at last met to- 
gether in 185G, from all parts of the State, and we agreed upon a 
common platform. You, who held more extreme notions, either 
yielded those notions, or if not wholly yielding them, agreed to 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 83 

yield them practically, for the sake of embodying the opposition 
to the measures which the opposite party were pushing forward 
at that time. We met you then, and if there was anything yielded, 
it was for practical purposes. We agreed then upon a platform 
for the party throughout the entire State of Illinois, and now we 
are all bound as a party, to that platform. And I say here to you, 
if any one expects of me, in the case of my election, that I will 
do anything not signified by our Republican platform and my 
answers here to-day, I tell you very frankly that person will be 
deceived. I do not ask for the vote of any one who supposes that 
I have secret purposes or pledges that I dare not speak out. Can- 
not the Judge be satisfied ? If he fears, in the unfortunate case of 
my election, that my going to Washington will enable me to advo- 
cate sentiments contrary to those which I expressed when you 
voted for and elected me, I assure him that his fears are wholly 
needless and groundless. Is the Judge really afraid of any such 
thing? I'll tell you what he is afraid of. He is afraid we'll all 
pull together. This is what alarms him more than anything else. 
For my part, I do hope that all of us, entertaining a common senti- 
ment in opposition to what appears to us a design to nationalize 
and perpetuate slavery, will waive minor differences on questions 
which either belong to the dead past or the distant future, and all 
pull together in this struggle. What are your sentiments ? If it 
be true, that on the ground which I occupy, — ground which I oc- 
cupy as frankly and boldly as Judge Douglas does his, — my views, 
though partly coinciding with yours, are not as perfectly in accord- 
ance with your feelings as his are, I do say to you in all candor, go 
for him and not for me. I hope to deal in all things fairly with 
Judge Douglas, and with the people of the State, in this contest. 
And if I should never be elected to any otlice, I trust I may go 
down with no stain of falsehood upon my reputation, — notwith- 
standing the hard opinions Judge Douglas chooses to entertain 
of me. 

The Judge has again addressed himself to the abolition tenden- 
cies of a speech of mine, made at Springfield in June last. I have 
so often tried to answer what he is always saying on that melan- 
choly theme, that I almost turn with disgust from the discussion,— 
from the repetition of an answer to it. I trust that nearly all of 
this intelligent audience have read that speech. If you have, I 
may venture to leave it to you to inspect it closely, and see whether 



84 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

it contains any of those " bugaboos " which frighten Judge 
Douglas. 

The Judge complains that I did not fully answer his questions. 
If I have the sense to comprehend and answer those questions, I 
have done so fairly. If it can be pointed out to me how I can more 
fully and fairly answer him, I aver I have not the sense to see how 
it is to be done. He says I do not declare I would in any event 
vote for the admission of a slave State into the Union. If I have 
been fairly reported, he will see that I did give an explicit answer 
to his interrogatories. I did not merely say that I would dislike to 
be put to the test ; but I said clearly, if I were put to the test, and 
a territory from which slavery had been excluded should present 
herself with a State constitution sanctioning slavery, — a most ex- 
traordinary thing, and wholly unlikely to happen, — I did not see 
how I could ' avoid voting for her admission. But he refuses to 
understand that I said so, and he wants this audience to under- 
stand that I did not say so. Yet it will be so reported in the 
printed speech that he cannot help seeing it. 

He says if I should vote for the admission of a slave State, I 
would be voting for a "dissolution of the Union, because I hold that 
the Union cannot permanently exist half slave and half free. I 
repeat, that I do not believe this Government can endure, perma- 
nently, half slave and half free ; yet I do not admit, nor does it at 
all follow, that the admission of a single slave State will perma- 
nently fix the character and establish this as a universal slave 
nation. The Judge is very happy indeed in working up these 
quibbles. Before leaving the subject of answering questions, I 
aver as my confident belief, when you come to see our speeches 
in print, that you will find every question which he has asked me, 
more fairly and boldly and fully answered than he has answered 
those which I put to him. Is not that so ? Tke two speeches may 
be placed side by side ; and I will venture to leave it to impartial 
judges whether his questions have not been more directly and 
circumstantially answered than mine. 

Judge Douglas says he made a charge upon the editor of the 
Washington Union alone, of entertaining a purpose to rob the 
States of their power to exclude slavery from their limits. I under- 
take to say, and I make the direct issue, that he did not make his 
charge against the editor of the Union alone. I will undertake to 
prove by the record here, that he made that charge against more 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 85 

and higher dignitaries than the editor of the Washington Union. 1 
am quite aware that he was shirking and dodging around the form 
in which he put it, but I can make it manifest that he levelled his 
"fatal blow" against more persons than this Washington editor. 
Will he dodge it now, by alleging that I am trying to defend Mr. 
Buchanan against the charge ? Not at all. Am I not making the 
same charge myself? I am trying to show that you, Judge 
Douglas, are a witness on my side. I am not defending Bu- 
chanan, and I will tell Judge Douglas that in my opinion, when he 
made that charge, he had an eye farther north than he was to-day. 
He was then fighting against people who called him a Black Re- 
publican and an Abolitionist. It is mixed all through his speech, 
and it is tolerably manifest that his eye was a great deal farther 
north than it is to-day. The Judge says that though he made this 
charge, Toombs got up and declared there was not a man in the 
United States, except the editor of the Union, who was in favor of 
the doctrines put forth in that article. And thereupon, I under- 
stand that the Judge withdrew the charge. Although he had 
taken extracts from the newspaper, and then from the Lecompton 
Constitution, to show the existence of a conspiracy to bring about a 
" fatal blow," by which the States were to be deprived of the right 
of excluding slavery, it all went to pot as soon as Toombs got up 
and told him that it was not true. It reminds me of the story that 
John Phoenix, the Californian railroad surveyor, tells. He says they 
started out from the Plaza to the Mission of Dolores. They had 
two ways of determining distances. One was by a chain and pin 
taken over the ground. The other was by a " go-it-ometer, — an 
invention of his own, — a three-legged instrument, with which he 
computed a series of triangles between the points. At night he 
turned to the chain-man to ascertain what distance they had come, 
and found that by some mistake he had merely dragged the chain 
over the ground without keeping any record. By the "go-it- 
ometer" he found he had made ten miles. Being skeptical about 
this, he asked a drayman who was passing how far it was to the 
plaza. The drayman replied it was just half a mile, and the sur- 
veyor put it down in his book, — just as Judge Douglas says, after 
he had made his calculations and computations, he took Toombs's 
statement. I have no doubt that after Judge Douglas had made 
his charge, he was as easily satisfied about its truth as the surveyor 
was of the drayman's statement of the distance of the plaza. Yet 



88 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

it is a fact that the man who put forth all that matter, which 
Douglas deemed a " fatal blow" at State sovereignty, was elected 
by the Democrats as public printer. 

Now, gentlemen, you may take Judge Douglas's speech of March 
22d, 1858, beginning about the middle of page 21, and reading to 
the bottom of page 24, and you will find the evidence on which I 
say that he did not make his charge against the editor of the Union 
alone. I cannot stop to read it, but I will give it to the reporters. 
Judge Douglas said : — 

" Mr. President, you here find several distinct propositions ad- 
vanced boldly by the Washington Union editorially, and apparently 
authoritatively, and. every man who questions any of them is de- 
nounced as an abolitionist, a freesoiler, a fanatic. The propositions 
are, first, that the primary object of all government, at its original 
institution, is the protection of persons and property ; second, that 
the Constitution of the United States declares that the citizens of 
each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of 
citizens in the several States ; and that, therefore, thirdly, all State 
laws, whether organic or otherwise, which prohibit the citizens of 
one State from settling in another with their slave property, and 
especially declaring it forfeited, are direct violations of the original 
intention of the Government and Constitution of the United 
States ; and fourth, that the- emancipation of the slaves of the 
Northern States was a gross outrage on the rights of property, 
inasmuch as it was involuntarily done on the part of the owner." 

" Remember that this article was published in the Union on the 
17th of November, and on the 18th appeared the first article giving 
the adhesion of the Union to the Lecompton Constitution. It was 
in these words : — 

"'Kansas and her Constitution. — The vexed question 
is settled. The problem is solved. The dead point of danger is 
passed. All serious trouble to Kansas affairs is over and gone' — 

" And a column, nearly, of the same sort. Then, when you 
come to look into the Lecompton Constitution, you find the same 
doctrine incorporated in it which was put forth editorially in the 
Union. What is it ? 

" 'Article 7, Section 1. The right of property is before and 
higher than any constitutional sanction ; and the right of the 
owner of a slave to such slave and its increase is the same and 
as invariable as the right of the owner of any property whatever.' 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 87 

" Then in the schedule is a provision that the Constitution may- 
be amended after 18G4 by a two thirds vote. 

" ' But no alteration shall be made to affect the right of property 
in the ownership of slaves.' 

" It will be seen by these clauses in the Lecompton Constitution, 
that they are identical in spirit with this authoritative, article in the 
Washington Union of the day previous to its indorsement of this 
Constitution. 

" When I saw that article in the Union of the 1 7th of November, 
followed by the glorification of the Lecompton Constitution on the 
18th of November, and this clause in the Constitution asserting the 
doctrine that a State has no right to prohibit slavery within its 
limits, I saw that there was a fatal blow being struck at the sover- 
eignty of the States of this Union." 

Here he says, " Mr. President, you here find several distinct 
propositions advanced boldly, and apparently authoritatively." 
By whose authority, Judge Douglas? Again, he says in another 
place, "It will be seen by these clauses in the Lecompton Constitu- 
tion, that they are identical in spirit with this authoritative article." 
By whose authority ? Who do you mean to say authorized the pub- 
lication of these articles? He knows that the Washington Union 
is considered the organ of the administration, /demand of Jud<xe 
Douglas by whose authority he meant to say those articles were pub- 
lished, if not by the authority of the President of the United 
States and his Cabinet, ? I defy him to show whom he referred to, 
if not to these high functionaries in the Federal Government. 
More than this, he says the articles in that paper and the provisions 
of the Lecompton Constitution are " identical," and being identical, 
he argues that the authors arc co-operating and conspiring together. 
lie does not use the word " conspiring," but what other construction 
can you put upon it ? He winds up with this : — 

" When I saw that article in the Union of the 17th of November, 
followed by the glorification of the Lecompton Constitution on the 
18th of November, and this clause in the Constitution asserting tin' 
doctrine thai a Slate has no right to prohibit slavery within its 
limits, I saw that there was a fatal 1>l<>w being struck at the sover- 
eignty of the States of this Union." 

I ask him if all this fuss was made over the editor of this news- 
paper? It would be a terribly " fatal blow" which a single man 
could strike, when no President, no Cabinet officer, no member of 



88 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

Congress, was giving strength and efficiency to the moment. Out 
of respect to Judge Douglas's good sense, I must believe that he 
didn't manufacture his idea of the "fatal" character of that blow 
out of such a miserable scapegrace as he represents that editor to 
be. But the Judge's eye is farther South now. Then, it was very 
peculiarly and decidedly North. His hope rested on the idea of 
visiting the great " Black Republican " party, and making it the 
tail to his new kite. He knows he was then expecting from day to day 
to turn Republican, and place himself at the head of our organiza- 
tion. He has found that these despised " Black Republicans " esti- 
mate him by a standard which he has taught them none too well. 
Hence he is crawling back into his old camp, and you will find him 
eventually installed in full fellowship among those whom he was 
then battling, and with whom he now pretends to be at such fearful 
variance. [Loud applause, and cries of " go on, go on."] I can- 
not, gentlemen, my time has expired. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 89 



CHAPTER VI. 

Re-election of Mr. Douglas— Fraudulent districting— Canvass in Ohio— Speeches 
by Mr. Lincoln— Speech at New York, &c. 

The circumstances attending the re-election of Mr. Douglas 
to the United States Senate by the Illinois legislature, elected 
at the close of the canvass previously described, are too fresh 
in the public mind to need much detail here. Mr. Lincoln 
was largely triumphant on the popular vote. The Republican 
members of that legistature having on the total vote of the 
State, a majority over the Douglas Democrats of about' five thou- 
sand. Yet, Douglas had a majority of the body, and was 
therefore re-elected. This result was accomplished through a 
fraudulent districting of the State by a previous legislature, 
whereby small democratic districts had the same and even 
larger representation than densely populated ones, which were 
largely Republican. The "gerrymandering" was successful 
in defeating the Free Labor candidate. 

Mr. Lincoln spoke twice in Ohio during the gubernatorial 
canvass of the following year. Gov. Dennison was the repre- 
sentative of the Republicans, and Judge Ranney of the Dem- 
ocrats. The latter gentleman is one of the ablest men in the 
Anti-Lecompton ranks. 

The fight between the Illinois Senator and the Administra- 
tion, continuing with the same bitterness of spirit at first man- 
ifested, the Ohio canvass was looked to with much interest. 
Senator Douglas had just issued his celebrated Harper article, 
and it had been assailed by Attorney-General Black. Mr. 
Douglas took the stump in Ohio in support of Ranney. The 
Republicans placed Mr. Lincoln in the field against him, as the 



90 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

man best fitted to cope with the " Little Giant." Undoubtedly, 
from the experience of the previous year, he was thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the tortuous sinuosities of the Senator's sophisti- 
cal and declamatory periods. Mr. Lincoln performed the duty 
assigned him, and in two speeches, delivered in September, 
1859, at Columbus and Cincinnati, respectively, demolished 
effectually the framework of Douglas's argument. 

Mr. Lincoln spoke several times during the last winter to 
large audiences in the Eastern States. He delivered an effective 
oration on "National Politics" at the Cooper Institute, New 
York, before the Young Men's Republican Club, of that city, 
which was largely attended. A New York correspondent of a 
far-western paper, thus describes the speaker, the speech, and 
its effects : — 

" The tall form of the Westerner, towering as it ought to do, 
a full head and shoulders above the New Yorkers who surround- 
ed him, and nearly doubling on the fat, jolly, and jocund Gen. 
Nye, — his small, compact head, dark complexion, and beard- 
less face, too, furnishing a striking contrast to the great head, 
grim, grand countenance, and white beard of the venerable poet 
Bryant, while the dark piercing eye, close-cut hair, and cars set 
back almost out of sight, and the quick, vigilant manner, and 
plain Western dress, all combined to give him a decidedly strik- 
ing and characteristic personality. His voice is sharp and shrill, 
pitched on a very high key, but at times, full, powerful, and 
sonorous ; his manner is high-toned and courteous, his features 
capable of an infinite variety of expression; his enunciation 
slow and emphatic ; his argument candid, closely reasoned, log- 
ical, and speaking with a generous humor. Altogether, he made 
the best impression, and stirred up the greatest enthusiasm of 
any public speaker I have heard for many a day." 



OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 91 



CHAPTER VII. 

National Republican Convention —reparations at Chicago— The Wigwam 
— General Enthusiasm — Organization — Speech of the President — Nomi- 
nations— Ballotings — Choice of Lincoln — Vice-President — Hamlin, etc. 

The second National nominating Convention of the Republi- 
can party, met at Chicago, on the lGth of May. The assem- 
bling of the first, at Philadelphia, in June 185G, marked an era 
in national politics. 

The outrages of the slave oligarchy in Kansas, and the manly 
character and life of the gallant Republican standard-bearer, 
John Charles Fremont, stirred up such a generous burst of en- 
thusiasm as seldom before made the heart of a great nation beat 
to a noble cause. The young men were felt in that campaign. 
Men grave and reverend, bearing honored names in literature, 
sciences, and politics, came forward from their retirement to 
speak for the choice of the aroused North. The results of that 
glorious campaign are well known. Though defeated, it was 
but a "Waterloo victory for the foe. 

The Republican party showed, by the immense vote given for 
its candidates, how great a hold its principles had upon the pub- 
lic mind. This- hold has not decreased, but rather become in- 
tensified, in the intervening four years. The reassembling of 
the party in convention, was looked forward to with the most 
eager interest. 

The people of Chicago made every preparation to accommo- 
date the hosts, who were westward wending their way. in the 
most liberal manner. Never before had the " Garden City " 
witnessed such animating scenes. It is reported that at least 



92 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

forty thousand strangers visited the city during the sitting of the 
Convention. The delegates numbered 4G5, and comprised re- 
presentatives from all the Northern, and six of the slave States, 
viz. Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware, Virginia, Texas, and Mis- 
souri, and from the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and the 
District of Columbia. 

The candidates for President, most prominent, were Seward, 
of New York ; Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois ; Salmon P. Chase 
and Judge Wade, of Ohio ; Edward Bates, of Missouri ; and 
Mr. Cameron, of Pennsylvania. The friends of each were 
earnest and zealous in behalf of their choice, but Mr. Seward's 
and Mr. Lincoln's names created the greatest amount of enthu- 
siasm. 

The Republicans of Chicago had erected a huge temporary 
building for the use of the Convention. The " Wigwam," as it 
was called, covered a space of 600 feet by 180, and the height was 
between 50 and GO feet. The building would hold about 10,000 
persons, and was divided into platform, ground-floor, and gal- 
lery. The stage upon which the delegates and members of the 
press were seated, held about 1,800 persons j the ground-floor and 
galleries about 8,000. The floor rested on an inclined platform, so 
that those in the rear were able to see the stage as well as the 
spectators in the front. A large gallery was reserved for the 
ladies, and which was filled every day to overflowing. 

At 12, M., on Wednesday the 16th of May, Gov. Morgan, of 
New York, Chairman of the National Committee, called the 
Convention to order, and nominated David Wilmot, of Pa., as 
President, pro tern. 

A permanent organization was effected in the afternoon, — 
Hon. George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, being chosen President, 
and the following gentlemen Vice-Presidents and Secretaries : — 

VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

S. F. Hersey, Maine. John Beard, Indiana. 

Wm. Hall, New Hampshire. David Davis, Illinois. 
Wm. Heberd, Vermont. Thos. W. Ferry, Michigan. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



93 



Ensign H. Kellogg, Mass. 
R. G. Hazard, Rhode Island. 
E. F. Cleveland, Connecticut. 
Wm. 0. Noyes, New York. 
E. Z. Rogers, New Jersey. 
Thaddeus Stevens, Penn. 
John C. Clark, Delaware. 
Wm. L. Marshall, Maryland. 
Richard Craw T ford, Virginia. 
George D. Burgess, Ohio. 



Hans Crocker, Wisconsin. 
Henry P. Schotte, Iowa. 
Aaron Goodrich, Minnesota. 
Henry T. Blow, Missouri. 
W. D. Gallagher, Kentucky 
W. T. Chandler, Texas. 
A. A. Sargent, California. 
Joel Burlingame, Oregon. 
Wm. Ross, Kansas. 
George Harrington, Dist. Col 



A. S. Paddock, Nebraska. 



SECRETARIES. 



Chas. A. Wing, Maine. 
Nathl. Hubbard, New Hamp. 
R. R. Hazard, R. Island. 
H. H. Starkweather, Conn. 
C. 0. Rogers, Massachusetts. 
Theodore M. Pomeroy, N. Y. 
Edward Bettie, N. Jersey. 
J. Bollman Bell, Penn. 
Benj. C. Hopkins, Delaware. 
William E. Coale, Maryland. 
A. W. Campbell, Virginia. 
Horace Z. Beebe, Ohio. 



S. Davis, Illinois. 
Wm. M. Stoughton, Mich. 
L. T. Trisby, Wisconsin. 
W. R. Allison, Iowa. 
D. A. Secamb, Minnesota. 
J. J. Kidd, Missouri. 
John J. Hawes, Kentucky. 
Dunbar Henderson, Texas. 
D. J. Staples, California. 
Eli Thayer, Oregon. 
John A. Martin, Kansas. 
H. R. Hitchcock, Nebraska. 



D. D. Pcllate, Indiana. 

Mr. Ashmun, in taking the Chair, spoke as follows : — 
Gentlemen of the Convention, Republicans and Americans : My 
first duty is to express to you my deep sense of this distinguished 
mark of your confidence, and in the spirit in which it is oifered [ 
accept of it. I am sensible of the difficulties which surround the 
position, but I am cheered and sustained by the faith that the same 
generosity which brought me here will carry me through the dis- 
charge of my duties. I will not shrink from the position which is 
at the same time the post of danger as well as honor. (Applause.) 
Gentlemen, we have come here to-day at the call of the country, 
from widely separated homes, to fulfil a great and important duty. 



94 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

No ordinary call has brought us together. Nothing but a moment- 
ous question would have (railed this vast multitude together, — no- 
thing but the deep sense of danger into which the Government is 
fast running, could have rallied the people thus in this city to-day 
for the purpose of rescuing the Government from the deep degrada- 
tion into which it has fallen. (Loud applause.) We have come 
here at the call of the country for the purpose of preparing for the 
most solemn duty that freemen can perform. We have here, in 
our ordinary capacity as delegates of the people, to prepare for the 
formation and carrying on of a new administration, and with the 
help of God we will do it. (Loud applause.) No mere controversy 
about miserable abstractions brought us here to-day. We do not 
come here on any idle question. The sacrifice which we have made 
in an extended journey, and the time we have devoted to it, would 
not have been made except on some solemn call. The stern look 
which I see on every face, and the earnest behavior which has 
been manifested in all the preliminary discussion, show that all have 
a true and deep sense of the solemn obligations which are resting 
upon us. Gentlemen, it does not belong to me to make any ex- 
tended address, but rather to assist in the details of the business 
which belongs to the Convention; but allow me to say 1 think we 
have a right here to-day, in the name of the American people, to 
impeach the administration of our General Government of the highest 
crimes that can be committed against a constitutional government, 
against a free people, and against humanity. (Prolonged cheers.) 
The catalogue of its crimes it is not for me to recite ; it is written 
on every page of the history of the present administration of the 
Government, and I care not how many paper protests the President 
may send into the House of Representatives. (Laughter and ap- 
plause.) We here, as a grand inquest of the nation, will find out 
for him and his confederates, not only a punishment terrible and 
sure, but a remedy that shall be satisfactory. (Loud applause.) 
Before proceeding to business, the Convention will allow me to con- 
gratulate you and the people on the striking features which I think 
must have been noticed by everybody who has mixed in the preli- 
minary discussions of the people who have gathered in this beautiful 
city; it is that brotherly kindness and generous emulation which 
have marked every conversation and every discussion, showing a 
desire for nothing save the country's good. Earnest, warm, generous 
preferences are expressed; ardent hopes and ibnd purposes aro 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 95 

declared, but not during the three days I have spent among you all 
have I heard one unkind word uttered by one man against another. 
I hail it as an augury of success, and it" during the proceedings of 
the Convention you will unite to perpetuate that feeling and allow 
it to pervade all your proceedings, I declare to you that it will be 
the surest and brightest omen of our success, whoever may be the 
standard-bearer in the great contest that is pending. (Applause.) 
In that spirit, gentlemen, let us now proceed to business — to the 
great work which the American people have given into our hands 
to do. (Loud cheers.) 

On Thursday, the 17th, the Committee on Resolutions re- 
ported the following platform, •which was adopted amid the 
wildest enthusiasm. 

PLATFORM OP THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 

Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Repub- 
lican Electors of the United States, in Convention assembled, iu 
the discharge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our coun- 
try, unite in the following declarations : — 

First, That the history of the nation during the last four years 
has fully established the propriety and necessity of the organization 
and perpetuation of the Republican party, and that the causes 
which called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and 
now more than ever before demand its peaceful and constitutional 
triumph. 

Second: That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in 
the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal 
Constitution, is essential to the preservation of our Republican insti- 
tutions ; that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and 
the union of the States, must and shall be preserved ; and that we 
reassert " these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created 
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain un- 
alienable rights; that among these arc life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are insti- 
tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of 
the governed." 

Third: That to the union of the States this nation owes its un- 
precedented increase in population ; its surprising development of 



96 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

material resources ; its rapid augmentation of wealth ; its happiness 
at home, and its honor abroad : and we hold in abhorrence all 
schemes for disunion, come from whatever source they may ; and 
we congratulate the country that no Republican member of Con- 
gress has uttered or countenanced a threat of disunion, so often 
made by Democratic members of Congress without rebuke and 
with applause from their political associates; and we denounce 
those threats of disunion, in case of a popular overthrow of their 
ascendency, as denying the vital principles of a free government, 
and as an avowal of contemplated treason, which it is the impera- 
tive duty of an indignant people strongly to rebuke and forever 
silence. 

Fourth : That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the 
States, and especially the right of each State to order and control 
its own domestic institutions, according to its own judgment exclu- 
sively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection 
and endurance of our political faith depends, and we denounce 
the lawless invasion by armed force of any State or Territory, no 
matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes. 

Fifth : That the present Democratic administration has far ex- 
ceeded our worst apprehensions in its measureless subserviency to 
the exactions of a sectional interest, as is especially evident in its 
desperate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton Constitution 
upon the protesting people of Kansas, — in construing the personal 
relation between master and servant to involve an unqualified 
property in persons, — in its attempted enforcement everywhere, 
on land and sea, through the intervention of Congress and the 
Federal Courts of the extreme pretentions of a purely local inter- 
est, and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted 
to it by a confiding people. 

Sixth : That the people justly view with alarm the reckless ex- 
travagance which pervades every department of the Federal Gov- 
ernment ; that a return to rigid economy and accountability is 
indispensable to arrest the system of plunder of the public treas- 
ury by favored partisans ; while the recent startling developments 
of fraud and corruption at the Federal metropolis, show that an 
entire change of administration is imperatively demanded. 

Seventh : That the new dogma that the Constitution of its own 
force carries slavery into any or all the Territories of the United 
States, is a dangerous political heresy, at variance with the explicit 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 97 

provisions of that Instrument Itself, -with contemporaneous exposi- 
tion, and with legislative and judicial precedent, is revolutionary 
in its tendency and subversive of the peace and harmony of the 
country. 

Eighth : That the normal condition of all the territory of the 
United States is that of freedom ; that as our republican fathers, 
when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, or- 
dained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or prop- 
erty, without the process of law, it becomes our duty, by legis- 
lation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to maintain thij 
provision of the Constitution against all attempt to violate it ; and 
we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or 
of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territo- 
ry of the United States. 

Ninth : That we brand the recent reopening of the African 
slave-trade, under the cover of our national Hag, aided by pin-ver- 
sions of judicial power, as a crime against humanity, a burning 
shame to our country and age, and we call upon Congress to 
take prompt and efficient measures for the total and final sup- 
pression of that execrable traffic. 

Tenth : That in the recent vetoes by their Federal Governors of 
the acts of the legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting 
slavery in those Territories, we find a practical illustration of the 
boasted Democratic principle of non-intervention and popular sov- 
ereignty, embodied in the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and a de- 
nunciation of the deception and fraud involved therein. 

Eleventh : That Kansas should of right be immediately admit- 
ted as a State under the Constitution recently formed and 
adopted by her people, and accepted by the House of Rep- 
resentatives. 

Twelfth : That while providing revenue for the support of the 
General Government by duties upon imposts, sound policy requires 
such an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the develop- 
ment of the industrial interest of the whole country, and we com- 
mend that policy of national exchanges which secures to the work- 
ing-men liberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to me- 
chanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their skill, 
labor and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and 
independence. 

Thirteenth : That we protest against any sale or alienation to others 
7 



38 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

of the public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of 
the free Homestead policy which regards the settlers as paupers or 
supplicants for public bounty, and we demand the passage by Con- 
gress of the complete and satisfactory Homestead measure which 
has already passed the House. 

Fourteenth: That the Republican party is opposed to any 
change in our Naturalization laws, or any State legislation by 
■which the rights of citizenship hitherto accorded to immigrants 
from foreign lands shall be abridged or impaired ; and in favor of 
giving a full and efficient protection to the rights of all classes of 
citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at home or abroad. 

Fifteenth : That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor 
improvements of a national character, required for the accommo- 
dation and security of an existing commerce, are authorized by the 
Constitution, and justified by an obligation of the government to 
protect the lives and property of its citizens. 

Sixteenth : That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively 
demanded by the interests of the whole country ; that the Federal 
Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its con- 
struction, and that as preliminary thereto, a daily overland mail 
should be promptly established. 

Seventeenth : Finally, having thus set forth our distinctive prin- 
ciples and views, we invite the co-operation of all citizens, however 
differing on other questions, who substantially agree with us, in 
their affirmance and support. 

Ballotings for candidate commenced on Friday, the third day 
of the session. William M. Evarts, of New York, placed in 
nomination the name of "William H. Seward; Mr. Judd, of 
Illinois, that of Abraham Lincoln ; Mr. Dudley, of New Jersey, 
that of William L. Dayton ; Gov. Reeder, of Pennsylvania, the 
name of Simon Cameron; Mr. Carter, of Ohio, Salmon P. 
Chase ; Frank P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, Edward Bates ; and 
Tom Corwin, of Ohio, Judge McLean. Much excitement and 
cheering followed, as delegates from various States seconded the 
different nominations. The following summary shows the results 
of the three ballots taken by the Convention : — 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 99 



FIRST BALLOT. 



For Mr. Seward 173^lFor Mr. McLean 12 



For Mr. Lincoln 102 

For Mr. Cameron 50} 

For Mr. Chase 40~ 

For Mr. Bates 48 

For Mr. Dayton 14 



For Mr. Collainer 10 

For Mr. Wade 3 

For Mr. Sumner 1 

For Mr. Reed 1 

For Mr. Fremont 1 



Whole number of votes, 465 ; necessary to a choice, 233. 



SECOND BALLOT. 



For Mr. Seward 184^ 

For Mr. Lincoln 181~ 

For Mr. Chase 42£ 

For Mr. Bates 35 



For Mr. Dayton 10 

For Mr. McLean 8 

For Mr. Cameron 2 

For Mr. Clay 2 



THIRD BALLOT. 

For Mr. Lincoln 354 iFor Mr. Dayton l 

For Mr. Seward 110}|For Mr. McLean . . . , j 

Intelligence of the nomination was now conveyed to the men 
on the roof of the building, who immediately made the outside 
multitude aware of the result. The first roar of the cannon 
soon mingled itself with the cheers of the people, and the same 
moment a man appeared in the hall, bringing a large painting 
of Mr. Lincoln. The scene at this time surpassed description, 
— 11,000 people inside, and 20,000 or 30,000 outside, were 
yelling and shouting at once. Two cannon sent forth roar after 
roar in quick succession. Delegates tore up the sticks and 
boards bearing the names of the several States, and waved them 
aloft over their heads, and the vast multitude before the platform 
were waving hats and handkerchiefs. The whole scene was one 
of the wildest enthusiasm. 

When silence was restored, William M. Evarts came forward 
to the Secretary's table, and spoke as follows : — 

Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of the National Convention, — The 
State of New York, by a full delegation, with complete unanimity 
of purpose at home, came to this Convention, and presented as its 
choice one of its citizens who had served the State from boyhood 
up, and labored for it and loved it. We came here a great State, 
with, as we thought, a great statesman — (applause) — and our love 



100 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

for the great Republic from which we are all delegates, — the great 
Republic of the American Union; and our love for t he great Re- 
publican party of the Union, and our love of our statesman and 
candidate, made us think we did our duty to the country and the 
whole country in expressing our preference and love for him. (Ap- 
plause.) But, gentlemen, it was from Gov. Seward that most of us 
learned to love Republican principles and the Republican party. 
(Cheers.) His fidelity to the country, the Constitution and the 
laws ; his fidelity to the party and the principles that majorities 
govern ; his interest in the advancement of our party to its victory, 
that our country may rise to its true glory, induce me to declare 
that I speak his sentiments, as I do the united opinion of our dele- 
gation, when I move, sir, as I do now, that the nomination of Abra- 
ham Lincoln, of Illinois, as the Republican candidate for the suf- 
frages of the whole country for the office of Chief Magistrate of 
the American Union be made unanimous.* (Applause, and three 
cheers for New York.) 

la the afternoon the Convention balloted for Vice-President. 
Mr. Wilder, of Kansas, named John Hickman, of Pennsylva- 
nia ; Mr. Lewis, of Pennsylvania, seconded the nomination ; 
Mr. Carter, of Ohio, named Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine ; Mr. 
Boutwell, of Massachusetts, named N. P. Banks, of Massachu- 
setts ; Mr. Smith, of Indiana, named Cassius M. Clay ; Mr. 
Lowry, of Pennsylvania, named Gov. Reeder, of Pennsylvania. 

The balloting resulted as follows : — 

FIRST BALLOT. 



For Mr. Hamlin 194 

For Mr. Clay 101| 

For Mr. Hickman 58 

For Mr. Reeder 51 

For Mr. Banks 3S£ 



For Mr. Davis 8 

For Mr. Houston 6 

For Mr. Dayton 3 

For Mr. Reed 1 



SECOND BALLOT. 

For Mr. Hamlin 367 |For Mr. Clay 86 

For Mr. Hickman 13 

Speeches were made by delegates from the various States, in 
favor of the Ticket, Platform, and general success of the Re- 
publican party. 



OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 101 

The Convention, after completing the business, by the ap- 
pointment of a National Executive Committee, adjourned sine 
die, with nine cheers for the candidates. 

The telegraph flashed the intelligence throughout the Union, 
and ratification meetings were held in nearly all of the cities 
and towns of the Northern States the same evening. 

The Republican Convention has done its work. Their plat- 
form and candidates are before the people. 

Throughout the Northern States, the nominations were enthu- 
siastically received. In the Empire State, which had confi- 
dently looked for the nomination of her favorite son, William H. 
Seward, the effect of the news was at first that of surprise, and 
then of hearty approval. In Pennsylvania, by the votes of those 
delegates, Mr. Lincoln was virtually placed before the country, 
the intelligence was greeted with the utmost enthusiasm. So 
throughout the doubtful States. In the West, the excitement 
rose to fever-heat. 

At Springfield, the home of Mr. Lincoln, the enthusiasm on 
receiving the news of his nomination, verged on wildness. Guns 
were fired, bonfires blazed, offices, stores, and dwelling-houses 
were illuminated, an impromptu torchlight procession formed, 
and the Republican candidate greeted with a serenade. Mr. 
Lincoln, in returning thanks, spoke of the demonstration thus 
made, not as personal to himself, but rather as a tribute to the 
principles which he was held worthy enough to represent. 

The Committee, appointed by the Republican National Con- 
vention, comprising the president, Mr. Ashmun, and the chair- 
man of the State delegations, to officially announce to Hon. 
Abraham Lincoln his nomination, arrived at Springfield, Satur- 
day night, the 19th, and proceeded to Mr. Lincoln's residence, 
where Mr. Ashmun, in a brief speech, presented Mr. Lincoln a 
letter, announcing his nomination. Mr. Lincoln replied as fol- 
lows : — 

Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen of the Committee, — I tender 
you, and through you, the Republican National Convention, and all 

people represented in it, my profoundest thuuks lor the high honor 



102 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

clone me, -which you formally announce. Deeply and even pain- 
fully sensible of the great responsibility which is inseparable from 
that honor, a responsibility whhh I could almost wish could have 
fallen upon some one of the far more eminent and experienced 
statesmen, whose distinguished names were before the Convention, 
I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the 
Convention, denominated the platform, and without unreasonable 
delay, respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting that 
the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nomination ac- 
cepted. Now I will not defer the pleasure of taking you and each 
of you by the hand." 

The various members of the Committees were severally intro- 
duced and welcomed by the future President of this Union. 

At Washington, Judge Douglas declared that there would not 
be a pound of gunpowder or a tar-barrel left in Illinios. If the 
remark had been of all the Western States, it would have been 
equally true. These popular outbursts are but a token of those 
to come. The " ides of November " will without doubt see the 
victorious Republican hosts dragging the men chosen to represent 
them in triumph to the White House. 



LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN, 



OF MAINE. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Mr. Hamlin is a true son of New England. All the charac- 
teristics of the Yankee, he possesses in the highest degree. Born 
among the immense forests of Maine, his appearance is that of the 
genuine Down-eastcr, — a type of character of which much has 
been said, but had little justice done it either by native or 
foreign writers. It is a character which combines shrewdness and 
cunning with intellectual strength ; the craftiness of the Jew with 
the moral heroism of a Luther ; and a physical development, so 
affluent of bone and muscle, so wiry and virile as to be able to 
carry on its work with credit and power, whether seen in driving 
logs down the turbulent Penobscot, or sitting in the senatorial 
chair arranging treaties with the nations of the earth, who come, 
like the Japanese princes of the East, to link themselves to the 
triumphal car of the young giants of the West. The physique of 
Senator Hamlin is very striking. He is about six feet in height, 
and well proportioned ; the features are a little heavy when not 
animated by conversation, but his coal-black eye, 

" A glorious one, 
Bright as a diamond in the sun," 

relieves all dulness of face by its piercing eagle-like glance. His 
complexion is somewhat yellow and bilious, his hair dark, and his 
head has remarkable phrenological, developments, among which the 
perceptive and reasoning faculties appear with the greatest promi- 
nence. He has a slight stoop of the shoulders, and is rather 
awkward, as a whole, in his carriage and gesticulations ; but 
all this is soon forgot under the magic of his conversation or 
speech. lie is careless, and almost slovenly in his dress, and the 
plentiful use of tobacco, which he chews incessantly when he is not 
smoking, stains his bosom with the juice of the weed. lie is none 
of your kid-glove gentry, but is large handed and open palmed to 
every member of the free, unwashed democracy. A traveller 
through the town of his residence may see him any summer, 



106 • INTRODUCTORY. 

about haying-time, in the fields in his shirt- sleeves, like the com- 
monest laborer; and in his social intercourse with men he pays but 
little regard to the conventionalities of so-called polite society. He 
'*s " free, fresh, savage," as Walt. Whitman says, and thinks just as 
much of you, in shabby attire, as if you were faultlessly clad in 
shining broadcloth. 

As a stump speaker he has few equals. It is on the stump that 
his peculiar powers are seen to the best advantage. He abounds in 
felicitous anecdotes, which, if sometimes coarse, are none the less 
good ; and his quickness at repartee is remarkable, and sometimes 
overwhelming. One of his sharp things in this line, we remem- 
ber, occurred in a speech which he delivered in Faneuil Hall, 
Boston, during a gubernatorial campaign. He had just con- 
cluded a terrific denunciation of the administration, and the 
Democratic party generally, and, just as the applause subsided, a 
solitary hiss was heard. He paused, and looking, with all the lurk- 
ing comic-dev'l in his eyes, at the spot from which this serpent- 
like noise had proceeded, he said, with that nasal twang of which 
he is master : " Is that a hiss I hear ? " The manner in which this 
was said, and which it is impossible to describe, convulsed the 
audience with laughter, and then, gathering himself up, he gave 
the unfortunate hisser a final and annihilating shot, thus : " It is 
said that the hiss of a goose once saved Rome, but it wont save 
modern Democracy." It is needless to say that this last sally was 
received with renewed merriment. 

This is only a mere glance at his style when on the rostrum or 
the stump, as it is called, in the West. His speeches are full of the 
sharpest hits, and the most convincing logic. We have thus 
briefly described the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, ex- 
Governor, and present representative of Maine in the United 
States Senate. 

This is the man on whom the people of Maine have lavished 
every honor within their gift as a State, and it is no more than just 
to say, that he has sustained himself in every position in which he 
has been placed with rare ability, and done great credit to himself, 
and his native State. It is needless to add that he is to be the next 
Vice-President of the United States, and as presiding officer of 
the first legislative body in the world, he will amply sustain the 
dignity of the position, and reflect great honor on the gallant body 
of northern freemen he so ably represents. 



LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

OP 

HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 



CHAPTEE I. 

Date of Birth — Profession — Political Faith — Entrance to Public Life — 
Election to State Legislature, etc. 

Tiie career of Hannibal Hamlin, Representative in the U. 
S. Senate from the State of Maine, and the candidate of the 
Republican party for Vice-President, is so intimately associated 
from his long public services with the political history of the 
country, from 1840 down, that to tell the leading facts would 
involve the necessity of using more space than our little volume 
contains. We must therefore content ourselves with briefly and 
succinctly noting the leading points. 

Senator Hamlin was born August 27, 1809, in Paris, Oxford 
County, Maine. He is consequently about six months younger 
than Mr. Lincoln, his associate on the Republican ticket. He 
resides in Hampden, Penobscot County. 

Mr. Hamlin's father was a thriving and leading physician, 
and gave his sons an excellent education. The subject of this 
sketch passed honorably through his early educational career, 
and, with the necessary preliminary study, was admitted to the 
bar soon after reaching his majority. 

He entered soon into active political life, identifying himself 
with the vigorous Democratic party of that period ; not then as 



108 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

now, the abject instrument of the designs of the Southern oli- 
garchy. He was but twenty-six years of age when first returned 
by his party to the State legislature. He served in that body 
for the next four years ; during three of which, he was the 
Speaker of its House of Representatives. 

In 1843, he was elected a Representative to the Twenty- 
eighth Congress. He served during both sessions, and was re- 
elected to the Twenty-ninth Congress. 

While sitting in the national House of Representatives, the 
absorbing subject of public interest was the question of annex- 
ing Texas. Mr. Hamlin early identified himself by his votes, 
speeches, and other public action, with the Frcesoil element of 
his party, on the resolutions of Mr. Brown, of Tenn., (providing 
for the annexation, with a provision that the States to be formed 
therefrom might come into the Union with or without slavery,) 
which was amended by Mr. Douglas, of 111., to the effect that 
the provisions of the Missouri Compromise should be extended 
to the Texas territory ; and in all States formed out of it north 
of 30° 30 ; , slavery should be prohibited ; when the vote came 
up on its final passage, Mr. Hamlin, with the northern Freesoil 
members of both great parties voted against both the original 
resolution and amendment. With most of his party, he voted 
for receiving Texas, when that republic accepted the proposal of 
annexation ; and again affirmatively his vote was recorded for 
the final admission of the "Lone Star" State. 

In the Twenty-ninth Congress, Mr. Hamlin's vote as strongly 
indicates his anti-slavery proclivities, though party ties still had 
their effect upon his action. His vote will be found recorded 
against Mr. Boyd's, of Ky., resolution declaring war against 
Mexico. His action throughout this Congress was of the same 
stamp. 



OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 109 



CHAPTER II. 

Return Home — State Legislature Election to the United States Senate — Ad- 
mission of Oregon — Compromise of 1850 — Mr. Hamlin's votes— The Ne- 
braska Bill — Abandonment of the Democratic Party — Election as Governor 
— Return to the Senate, &c. 

On the adjournment of Congress in 1847, ho returned to 
Maine and was elected a member of the House of Representa- 
tives of the State legislature. He served in this body during 
that term, and was elected by it to the United States Senate for 
a period of four years, May 26, 1848, to fill a vacancy caused 
by the decease of John Fairfield. 

He took his seat in that body, and in consequence was a mem- 
ber and participant in the contest for the organization of Oregon, 
and the celebrated compromise struggle of 1850, caused by the 
proposition to admit California. , Mr. Hamlin's vote stands 
recorded in favor of Northern principles. 

He voted for the bill organizing the Territory of Oregon, con- 
taining the provisions of the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting 
slavery therein : and steadily opposed Mr. Douglas's amend- 
ment to extend the line of 36° SO' to the Pacific. 

During the continuance of the compromise struggle of 1850. 
Mr. Hamlin voted agiinst Clay's omnibus bill, and most of its 
provisions. He voted for the admission of California with her 
constitution excluding slavery; against the organization of the 
territories of New Mexico and Utah, without daveiy-excluding 
provisions ; and for the abolition of the slave-trade in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. His vote is not recorded upon the final pas- 
sage of the Fugitive Slave Bill, 

On the i>5th of July, 1851, Mr. Hamlin was re-elected to 



110 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

the United States Senate for the term of six years. He still 
continued to act with the Democratic party, having advocated 
the election of President Pierce, and supported his administra- 
tion up to the period that, under the lead of Senator Douglas, 
that party abrogated the Missouri Compromise by the passage 
of the Nebraska Bill in 1854. 

Senator Hamlin's celebrated speech in the summer of '56, in 
which he abandoned his old party associates, they having aban- 
doned their principles, will be remembered for the enthusiasm 
it excited throughout the North. It was the first gun of the 
Fremont campaign. 1 a his own State Senator Hamlin instantly 
became the popular idol. Subsequent events mark how the 
people repay those who are true to them, and to the impulses of 
freedom. 

Mr. Hamlin was the nominee of the Republican party of 
Maine, for the governorship, during the canvass of 185G. His 
name created the greatest enthusiasm ; and Maine, the first of 
the States to lead off, in recording her opposition to Democratic 
treachery at Washington and Federal tyranny on the prairies of 
Kansas, rolled up a majority of 18,000 for the man of her 
choice. 

He was inaugurated Governor of Maine, January 7, 1857, 
resigned his seat in the United States Senate on the same day ; 
on the sixteenth of the same month he was reelected to the 
United States Senate for another term of six years, and on Feb- 
ruary 20, resigned the governorship and took his seat in the 
national capitol. The annals of politics do not show another 
instance of such honors showered so thickly upon a s> afannan as 
in the case of Senator Hamlin. 



OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. Ill 



CHAPTER III. 

United States Senate — The Lecompton Contest — Mr. Hamlin's position — 
" Mudsills " — Answer to Senator Hammond, of S. C. — The Laborers of the 
North. 

Throughout the exciting Lecompton contest, Mr. Hamlin 
bore himself gallantly in behalf of free labor. He spoke in 
answer to Senator Hammond's insolent speech of March, 1858, 
wherein the arrogant slaveocrat characterized the working-men 
of the free States as hirelings, and the "mudsills of society." 

Mr. Hamlin commenced his reply on the ninth of March and 
continued it through the next day. 

We make the following extracts : — 

THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION AND ITS INFAMY. 

Mr. Hamlin said — Mr. President : I do not often trespass on 
the patience of the Senate. I do so now from no personal inclina- 
tion of my own. Indeed, but for the obligation which is imposed 
upon me by the people whom I represent, I w r ould forego, on the 
present occasion, any suggestions which I might deem it proper to 
make, and give a silent vote upon the views which have been pre- 
sented, and shall be presented, by other senators, upon the ques- 
tion now pending. The importance of the question, however, is 
such as imposes an obligation upon me to speak in vindication of 
the rights of the people I represent. The magnitude of the ques 
tion is a sufficient apology. 

Since I have held a seat in this body, indeed in the history of 
the whole country, I think no question has been presented to us for 
our deliberation and consideration, equal in importance and mag- 
nitude to that which is now before us. I regret, sir, I deeply re- 
gret, the aspect in which it is presented. In all this body, were I 
to put the question, how many are there who approve the act 



112 LIFE AND PUBLIC. SERVICES 

which is about to be consummated here, in their judgment ? how 
many of all that hold seats here, could give an affirmative answer ? 
The tyranny of party, the despotism of party, come in to the res- 
cue, and men here are about to do an act, which in their judgment 
and their hearts they disapprove. There is no despotism on earth 
like the despotism of party and party associations. We should, as 
freemen, do no act that does not command the approval of the 
judgment. 

What is the act which a firm and settled majority in this Senate 
have determined shall be done ? In all the history of time, in all 
the records of the past, no act of equal political turpitude, in my 
judgment, can be found, save one to which I may allude. 

THE UNION. 

Mr. President : I have no laudations to bestow on this Union. 
It needs none. Its eulogy is written in the history of the past. I 
choose that my acts shall speak for me, rather than the words I 
utter. I would, sir, that it should remain a monument forever to 
guide the nations of the world. I would, sir, that this government 
should be perpetuated for all coming time ; and no act of mine, no 
instrumentality of mine, shall be exerted or given except for that 
perpetuation. I would that our nation should stand a moral monu- 
ment to enlighten other nations ; but I cannot resist the conclusion 
that if we are to bow to the unlimited power of party despotism, 
if we are to do acts, which, in our judgments and in our hearts we 
reprobate, the day, the hour, of our downfall is as certain as that of 
other nations which have preceded us. I do not mean that it will 
come now, or even within my day, or the day of the youngest of 
us. Great as may be the wrongs which you may perpetrate, the 
recuperative energies of our country may overcome them; but, in 
the course of time, this incessant arrogation of executive and gov- 
ernmental power must produce its effect; and the institutions 
which we have reared, when their foundation shall have been sub- 
verted by executive power, must crumble and decay. That act 
which is before us, that bill upon which we are to vote, is one of 
the measures which is calculated, if not designed, to produce that 
event. Who that believes that nations, like individuals, must 
answer to a higher power for the wrongs they perpetrate, who 
that believes that the sins committed by a nation are to be answered 



OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. H3 

for as the sins of an individual, can doubt that, if the present 
course of things be persisted in, a fearful retribution must 
follow ? 

After alluding to the former and present positions of the 
South upon the tariff, and other cpcstions, in illustration of the 
change of sentiment by those States, the Senator proceeds to 
show the designs of the founders of the government, and the 
action of the South at that period. 

SOUTHERN CHANGE OP FRONT. 

I pass from the consideration of these two questions to one of a 
broader character. I pass to the consideration of what was the 
original design of our government in its foundation, and what was 
the action of the South at that period of time. I know the South 
has changed her views. I do not know that I complain of it. I 
know the effect of habit, association, companionship, and interest, 
upon the lives, the conduct, and the opinions of men. I can be 
more charitable to those men of the South than I can be to their 
allies in the North ; and God forbid that I should say one word to 
or of them, when we have such a class existing in the North 
as we have all around us. No, sir ; I might say that I love them 
in comparison with the class of men at the North who are faith- 
less to all the instincts of humanity, of association, of education, 
and all their surroundings. I know the force and the power 
of those influences. God knows what might be our opinions 
if we were born and educated at the South ; I do not. Had 
I been born in Turkey, I do not know that I might not have 
been a Mussulman. But it is humiliating to us, it is mortifying, 
but it is an admission to be made, that you train our politicians at 
the North, and make them subservient to all your behests. It is 
a humiliating admission to make, but still it belongs to the frailty 
of humanity, and I hope, in the progress of time, Ave shall be com- 
pensated for the admission by finding, when government is re- 
stored to its original position, that that class of people do not 
live entirely at the North. While it is a matter of regret, and of 
deep regret, that we have such a class of men among us, while I 
mourn over it, I am consoled with the reflection that light is 
dawning in the distant South ; that the patriotic, the noble men 
8 



114 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

of that region are coming to the rescue, and telling us that they 
have hearts and sympathies that beat in unison with our own, and, 
that they, with us, ask only that this government be administered 
upon the principles on which our fathers founded it 

But, sir, what was the early action of the government to which I 
have referred, and upon which our government was based ? It 
was the principle of freedom. I know too well, and I confess I 
feel somewhat embarrassed under the circumstances, that 1 can 
utter no new truth here ; but what, I ask, is the history of this gov- 
ernment in relation to the principles upon which it was founded ? 
I say that it was founded, and it was designed to be based on the 
principles of free government. When our Constitution was formed, 
nobody doubted, everybody expected, that the institution of slavery, 
so deleterious in its effects, would fade away. Times have changed. 
The invention of the cotton-gin made the production of cotton prof- 
itable ; and, with that power which belongs to the pocket-nerve, 
public sentiment has changed in the South, and too much in the 
North. The production of cotton became profitable, and with that 
profit came the change. A temporary and evanescent benefit has 
led to this change, not a permanent benefit. Madison told us, in 
the convention which framed the Constitution, that it was wrong to 
admit that man could hold property in man ; that lie would not 
incorporate that idea into the Constitution. We had the maxims 
and the teachings of Jefferson, and all the wisest and best men of 
the South against slavery. I have no time to stop now to quote 
authorities, they are 

" Thick as autumnal leaves." 

They all concurred in the doctrine that it was an institution that 
carried along with it blight and mildew ; and your eloquent Pink- 
ney, of Maryland, told you that it scorched the green earth upon 
which its footsteps fell. 

Under that view of the case, the ordinance from the brain of 
Thomas Jefferson, was adopted. In the precise form in which it 
passed into a legal enactment, I know it came from Nathan 
Dane, of New England ; but the idea was that of the South ; the 
principle was originated by Thomas Jefferson ; and the only dis- 
tinction between the restriction of Jefferson in 1784, and Dane, in 
1787, was this : Jefferson proposed that slavery should be prohib- 
ited from all your territories then belonging to the United States, 



OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 115 

and all that should be acquired. The proviso of Dane restricted it 
in the territories then belonging to the United States, and provided 
that fugitives from service should be surrendered. If the doctrine 
of Jefferson had been maintained as presented in 1784, there would 
have been quiet in the country, and none of the agitations which 
we have witnessed would have occurred. 

This was the doctrine of the South, then ; she presented it to us 
for our approval and adoption. How stands the South to-day ? 
She has repudiated the doctrines of her fathers, and comes here 
asserting that our government is founded on the great principle of 
human servitude, — a system that degrades the white man who 
labors beside the slave. 



REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 

" Mr. President, I come now to another point which, in my judg- 
ment, implies vastly more than legislative faith. I come to the re- 
peal of the Missouri Compromise. Whose measure was that ? 
From what section of the country did it come ? By whose voies 
was it imposed upon the country ? Every man knows — it is his- 
torical — that the Missouri Compromise was a southern measure. Its 
passage was celebrated by public meetings all over the South. 
They held it as their peculiar measure. It was, in truth, the sug- 
gestion of Mr. McLane, from a southern State ; and it was adopted 
finally upon the suggestion of Mr. Pinckney, a Senator from a 
southern State. His life shows the fact. The letter which he 
wrote upon the occasion states that, in the committee of confer- 
ence between the two branches of Congress, he suggested it. Upon 
his suigestion it was adopted; and then public meetings were held 
through all the South, and they were jubilant over its success 
Now, sir, one of their own men declared that it should be an act 
irrepealable. I do not contend that it was such except in good 
faith. The Missouri Compromise line was, therefore, the act <»f 
the South; and in that act the North had always acquiesced 
"Who abrogated the restriction? It was adopted by almost all the 
votes of the South; and only here ami there a man from the North 
to support it, and who were known no more forever, as will he those 
at the North who support this measure I: was a southern measure 
in essence and in substance. The North did not vote for it. Win ? 
Because it was a partial departure from the original design of the 



116 L T FE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

government ; because it did not come up to the doctrine of 1787. 
But after it had been adopted the North, for more than a third of a 
century, acquiesced in it. After the South had secured, under that 
compromise, all the advantage that could accrue to her and her pe- 
culiar institutions, she comes into this Hall, and she asks, she de- 
mands, and she obtains, a repeal of all that was beneficial to the 
North. We are told by the Senator from South Carolina that we 
can rely upon the South; that her plighted faith has never been 
broken ! Sir, I will not quote what is so familiar upon my lips in 
relation to the South, but I will quote it as to what they call the 
Democratic party : •. " their faith is Punic, and branded to a 
proverb." 

But, sir, it is not in a party aspect alone that I propose to view 
this question. A broader and a wider view is before me. It is 
not the South as a party, and in a party aspect, that has violated 
this time-honored compact, and I say has violated her faith ; but 
she has extended her power to the court below. I think, on the 
whole, " the court below" is an appropriate term. She seized upon 
the Executive and bound him in her manacles. She holds the 
government in all its departments. You have got the legislative 
power in your control ; you have got the executive in your con- 
trol ; you have got the judiciary in your power. How you got 
the two latter I do not precisely undertake to say, — by political 
complicity and collusion, any how. Search all the records of your 
country, examine all the messages that have ever been presented 
to us, and not one can be found where an Executive has under- 
taken to foreshadow the opinions of the judiciary, until you come 
to the inaugural address of the present President of the United 
States, — not one ; and in that political collusion and complicity, I 
affirm that the object was to rob the people and the States of the 
rights that belong to them. 

PROSTITUTION OF THE JUDICIARY. 

Now, sir, with how much grace, or with how much truth, can the 
Senator from South Corolina affirm that the plighted faith of the 
South has never been broken ? This opinion of the court — mark 
the word I use ; I do not call it the decision of the court, for I re- 
gard it only as the opinion of the judges individually — is given 
upon a question which they tell us gravely is not before them. 
They erect a structure for which they have no foundation. They 



OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 117 

gravely and judicially tell us lhat they Lave no jurisdiction of the 
matter, and that they volunteer an opinion as to what they would 
decide if the question was before them. That is all there is of it ; 
there is nothing more. I concur with Justice McLean, who said 
that he would treat it as no decision at all. There is not a lawyer 
in this body, there is not a lawyer in the country, who does not 
know that when the court determine that they have no jurisdiction 
in the matter, they have no right to determine the question which 
lies behind the issue of jurisdiction. I regret, sir, I deeply regret, 
that that court should have gone outside of its appropriate juris- 
diction for the purpose of seeking an occasion on which to issue or 
make public their private opinions. I had before looked at that 
court with high respect ; but I hold that they had no more right to 
decide upon that question than we have to decide for them. It 
was a political question purely ; and it is one of those questions in 
regard to which Thomas Jefferson so early and so ably warned us 
against judicial interference. But why quote Thomas Jefferson? 
He is obsolete on the other side of the Chamber. 

They had no more authority to decide a political question for us, 
than we had to decide a judicial question for them. Keep each 
branch of the government within the sphere of its own duties. 
We make laws, they interpret them ; but it is not for them to tell 
us what are the limits within which we shall confine ourselves in 
our action ; or, in other words, what is a political constitutional 
right of this body, any more than it is for us to tell them what is a 
judicial right that belongs to them. Of all despotisms upon earth, 
the despotism of a judiciary is the worst. It is a life estate. When 
that court shall make the decision foreshadowed in this opinion, 
they will be regarded on the pages of history as exceeding in in- 
famy the finned Jeffreys, of England. His decisions did not un- 
dertake to grasp the liberties of a people, but were confined to 
individuals. Our court, broader in their grasp, undertake to usurp 
the rights of a nation. Jeffreys will be forgotten when the opinions 
of this court shall have grown into a judicial decision. Sir, that 
will never be. There is a peculiar fact that belongs to that court; 
I have been unable to find a decision contravening the party in 
power. While I am no prophet, I can read when " coming events 
cast their shadows before." We are to have the power ; we are to 
restore tin' government to what our lathers made it ; we are to 
place it upon its original basis; and the court will come back to 
♦lie original basis. 



118 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



WHO CONTROLS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

All parties, I have said, are directed more or less by certain in- 
fluences within their organization. The Democratic party, so 
called, is in the control of South Carolina. I remember when Mr. 
Calhoun offered his resolutions here, only a few years ago, in rela- 
tion to the powers of government over slavery in the territories. I 
refer to the resolutions which he offered about the days of the com- 
promise. The Senator from New York [Mr. Seward] remembers 
how they were laughed and scouted from the Senate. They are in 
the Senate to-day ; they are the basis of your Democratic party ; 
they are now triumphant in every branch of the government ; 
they are triumphant here ; they are triumphant in the other branch 
of Congress, one of its very worthy and distinguished members 
being its presiding officer. They arc here by your action, and 
you fasten your power upon the Executive at the other end of the 
avenue. Democracy in 1858 means the nullification doctrines of 
South Carolina in times gone by. It is so. I say you have the 
Senate, and you have the Congress. I have no earthly doubt as to 
what is to be the fate of this measure in this branch of the govern- 
ment. I have no doubt as to what will be its fate in the other 
House. I affirm, therefore, that you have got this branch of the 
government. That you have the Executive is clear. While he 
told his subordinate, the Governor of Kansas, that he must insist 
upon the submission of the Lecompton Constitution to the people 
for their vote of approval or rejection, he has yielded all, and tells 
you now that you must adopt the constitution, notwithstanding there 
is ten thousand majority against it. You have the Supreme Court, 
because they say, in their opinion, that, — " For more than a cen- 
tury before the adoption of the Constitution they had regarded ne- 
groes as beings of an inferior order, and possessed of no rights" — 
mark the words — " which a white man was bound to respect." 

Is there a beast that toils in any State, — I speak of beasts, — 
where legislation has not thrown around it a protecting care that it 
shall not be abused by its owner ? Is there a slave State where 
slavery exists intensified, where your legislation have not protected 
the rights of persons in the slave ? It is an inhuman expression, it 
is historically untrue besides. 

But, sir, what you call the Democracy have improved upon that 



OF IJAXXIHAL HAMLIN. 119 

doctrine. If you will pass this bill, (and who doubts that you will?) 
they come to the same conclusion ; and they go further ; for, while 
the court decide that colored men have no rights that you are 
bound to respect, they affirm that majorities of white men in the 
territories have no rights that the Democratic party are bound to 
respect. That is the conclusion. It is the logical conclusion from 
your acts. The court, I thought, went a great way. It is a revolt- 
ing, — I repeat once more, — it is an inhuman expression. They 
said that was the sentiment of the revolutionary times. I mean to 
quote them correctly. I say it is historically incorrect. But, im- 
proving on that doctrine, that black men, for a century before the 
Constitution, had no rights that a white man was bound to respect, 
modern Democracy claims that a majority of free white men in 
your territories have no rights that it is bound to respect. 

Mr Durkee. That is the doctrine of progress ? 

Mr. Hamlin. That is the doctrine of progress, as my friend 
says. Yes, sir, it is the doctrine of progress : but such a progress ! 
I think it is that kind of progress that the boy made in going to his 
daily toils at school. There had been snow and rain, and the 
ground was very slippery, and he arrived at a very late hour. On 
being reprimanded by his instructor for not getting there earlier, lie 
said that on taking a step forward, he always fell two steps behind. 
" Then pray, sir, how did you ever arrive ? " " Why, after strug- 
gling a long while, I turned around and went backwards." 
[Laughter.] 

The speaker proceeded to answer the insulting allusions of 
the South Carolinian, and thus rebuked his reference to North- 
ern working-men. The courteous tone of the Senator added to 
the force of the earnest sarcasm, wherewith allusion was made 
to the source whence Mr. Hammond drew his conclusions rela- 
tive to the industrial classes of the North. 

THE LABORERS OF THE NORTH. 

In my judgment, the Senator from South Carolina, — I assure 
him I say it in kindness, — has mistaken the character of our labor- 
ers and their position. I do nut think he would designedly assign 
them a position to which they do not belong; and I have said, that 
in my opinion, lie has come to the conclusion that our laborers 
occupy precisely the same position as those whom he sees in his 



120 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

own vicinity. I do not say that even that is so ; but I say such is 
my conclusion. I am frank to admit that I know very little of 
the character of the laborers who toil beside the slave, but I have 
seen something of it. I have seen what has satisfied me that they 
have little intelligence; that they were poorly clothed ; and that, 
while they felt themselves above them, they were actually, in the 
social scale, below the slaves. I remember, Sir, that upon the banks 
of the Potomac, I once heard a negro taunt a white man, that he 
was so poor, that he had not a master ; and when I looked at the 
•poor white man, I confess, I thought there was some truth in the 
taunt. 

Now, my word for it, the Senator from South Carolina has mis- 
taken the character of our population, and our laborers. I stand 
here the representative of Northern laborers. I wish they had a 
better and abler representative in my stead ; but such as I am, they 
have sent me here ; such as I am I will vindicate their rights. 

The debate continued on the following day, Wednesday, 
March 10. Mr. Hamlin thus proceeded to rebuke the insults 
of the haughty South Carolinian. 

When the Senator from South Carolina undertakes to draw 
imaginary distinctions between classes of laborers, he goes back to 
the old, the worn, the rotten, the discarded system of ages that have 
long since passed. I tell that Senator what is true, that we draw 
no imiginary distinctions between our different classes of laborers, 
— none whatever. " Manual laborers !" Well, Sir, who are the 
manual laborers of the North, that are degraded and placed 
beside the slave of the South by the Senator from South Carolina ? 
Who are our manual laborers ? Sir, all classes in our commu- 
nity are manual laborers ; and, to a greater or less extent, they are 
hireling manual laborers. They constitute, I affirm, a majority of 
our community, — those who labor for compensation. I do not 
know, I confess I cannot understand, that distinction which allows a 
man to make a contract for the service of his brains, but denies 
him the right to make a contract for the service of his hands. 
There is no distinction between them. We draw none ; we make 
none. Who are that class of citizens in our community, who are 
its hirelings ? That is the term. I do not know whether he de- 
signs it as opprobrious ; but that is the term with which he desig 
nates our laborers of the North. This is modern Democracy- ! 



OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. ]21 

Who arc our " hireling manual laborers " of the North ? I can 
tell the Senator they are not the mudsills of our community. They 
are the men who clear away our forests. They are the men who 
make the green hill-sides blossom. They are the men who build 
our ships, and who navigate them. They are the men who build 
our towns, and who inhabit them. They are the men who consti- 
tute the great mass of our community. Sir, they arc not only the 
pillars that support our government, but they are the capitals that 
adorn the very pillars. They are not to be classed with the slave. 
Our laboring men have homes ; they have wives ; they have little 
ones, dependent upon th^m for support and maintenance; and 
they are just so many incentives, and so much stimulus, to action. 
The laboring man, with us, knows for whom he toils ; and when he 
toils, he knows he is to return to that home, where comfort and 
pleasure, and all the domestic associations, cluster around the social 
hearth-stone. Northern laborers are " hirelings," and are to be 
classed with the negro slave ! 

Besides that, the men who labor in our communities are the men 
whom we clothe with power. They are the men who exercise the 
prerogatives of the State. They are the men who, after having 
been clothed with power there, are sent abroad to represent us 
elsewhere. They do our legislation at home. They support the 
State. They are the State. They are men, — high-minded men. 
They read ; they watch you in these halls every day ; and, through 
all our community, the doings of this branch, and of the other, are 
as well understood, and perhaps even better, than we understand 
them ourselves. I affirm that, throughout our community, the 
proceedings of Congress are more extensively and accurately read 
than even by ourselves. These are the men who are to be classed 
by the side of the slave ! I think it is true that in about every 
three generations, at most, the wheel entirely perforins its revolu- 
tions. You rarely find a fortune continuing beyond three genera- 
tions, in this country, in the same family. 

That class of our community, constituting a very large majority, 
has been designated here as hireling laborers, — white slaves. 
Why, sir, does labor imply slavery ? Because they toil, because 
they pursue a course which enables them to support their wives 
and their families, even if it be by daily manual labor, does that 
necessarily imply servitude ? Far from it. I affirm that the great 
portion of our laborers at the North own their homes, and they 



122 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

labor to adorn (hem. They own their homes, and if you will visit 
them, you will find in many of them a portion, at least, of the litera- 
ture of the times, which shows that they read ; you will find there 
evidences to satisfy you, beyond all doubt, that they are intelligent, 
and that they are, in truth and in fact, precisely what I have 
described them to be, — the pillars of the State, the State itself, 
and the very ornaments and capitals that adorn the columns. "With 
them the acquisition of knowledge is not a crime. 

I have quoted all that the Senator from South Carolina has said 
on this point, for the purpose of giving the widest circulation I can 
to the declarations he has made. He has mistaken, I doubt not, 
the character of our laborers by judging them from what he has 
seen in his own vicinity, and what, in my judgment, is produced by 
that very state of servitude which is there existing. It is my duty 
to vindicate our laborers. My only regret is that I can do it no 
more efficiently. 

Mr. Hamlin proceeds to review the history of the Demo- 
cratic party down from its formation, and the relations the 
South stood in regard to its principles and action. He con- 
trasted, in a forcible manner, the sentiments of the Jefferson 
Democracy, and those freedom-hating organizations which has 
usurped the honored name. 

The remainder of the speech is mostly occupied by a statis- 
tical statement, forcibly put, of the difference of products, 
exports, and imports between the two great sections of the 
Union. These statements are conclusive on the effects of slave 
institutions to deteriorate the material wealth and social progress 
of any community adopting them. 

The closing periods are filled with eloquent denunciation of 
the tyranny sought to be practised on Kansas. Alluding to the 
argument that the Lecompton swindle was made under the forms 
of law, Mr. Hamlin forcibly said : — 

Forms of law ! God knows there is nothing but form in it, — 
forms of law ! Long years ago the mother country undertook to 
oppress these colonies by forms of law, but not as unjustly as we 
have ruled the people of Kansas ; and she persecuted that great 
and noble patriot,, John Hampden, under the forms of law, and for 
his love of liberty. There is one other act which has been perpe- 



OP HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 123 

trated under the forms of law, to winch I will allude, and then I 
shall have done. 

Under the forms of law, despotism is created. Under the forms 
of law, all the wrongs of which the mind of man can conceive have 
been perpetrated. Under the forms of law, and in the name of 
liberty, liberty itself has been stricken down. In the name and 
under the forms of law, the Son of man was arraigned and stretched 
upon the cross. Under the forms of law, you are about to do an 
act here, unequalled in turpitude by anything that has been re- 
corded in all the progress of time, save that event to which I have 
just alluded. In all history, save the crucifixion of Christ, there is 
no act that will stand upon the record of its pages in after time of 
equal turpitude with this act. The purpose of it is to extend hu- 
man slavery ; and I may well inquire 

" Is this the day for us to sow 
The soil of a virgin empire with slavery's seeds of woe- 
To ieed with our fresh life-blood the old world's cast off crime 
Propped like some monstrous early birth from the tired lap of time » 



124 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 



CHAPTER IV. 

Nomination as Vice-President — Mr. Hamlin's experience fits him for the posi- 
6ition — Acceptance of Nomination — Public Serenade at Washington — Dis- 
turbance, &c. 

Mr. Hamlin has still three years of his term in the Senate 
to serve. He is a member of the Committee on Commerce and 
on the District of Columbia. His long legislative experience 
renders him a most valuable colleague, and has admirably fitted 
him to preside over the body of which for nine years he has 
been a member. He is not a man of brilliant oratorical powers, 
but possesses decided executive and administrative faculties, 
which combined with ripe experience, will make him an impor- 
tant member of Mr. Lincoln's administration. 

The reception on Friday, the 18th of May, of the news of 
Mr. Hamlin's nomination, at "Washington, created much feeling 
among his friends. His rooms were thronged on Saturday, 
and in the evening a public serenade was given him. He occu- 
pies rooms at the Washington House, which on this occasion 
was illuminated from garret to cellar. The following report of 
the proceedings is taken from the special despatches to the New 
York Herald : — 

At half-past nine o'clock, the procession arrived in front of the 
hotel, and was greeted with three lusty cheers. After the inspiring 
air, " Hail to the Chief," so familiar on similar occasions, had been 
performed by the band, loud calls were made for Mr. Hamlin. 

Mr. B. B. French then came forward on the balcony, amid a 
number of ladies and gentlemen, and said : — 

My friends, I have the pleasure of introducing Senator Hamlin, 
who has been nominated at the Chicago Convention to be one of 



OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 125 

the standard-bearers of the Republican party. (Loud cheer?.) 
We all know how well he will bear that standard. Ho has become 
almost a citizen among us. He has been here a number of years, 
and my friends, we mean to keep him here four years from the 4th 
of March next. I now introduce him to you. 

SPEECH OF HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 

Mr. Hamlin then came forward, amid great cheering, and spoke 
as follows : — 

Fellow- Citizens: Sympathizing with you in principles which 
have united us, I am happy to greet you on this occasion. I am 
pleased to mingle my thoughts with yours in that tribute which you 
pay to a common cause. You have come, my friends, for the pur- 
pose of congratulating each other upon the result of the action of 
our friends who have met in council at Chicago, the communication 
of whose decision has come to us over the telegraphic wires. Un- 
solicited, unexpected, and undesired, the nomination has been con- 
ferred upon me. Unsolicited as it was, I accept it, with the 
responsibilities which attach to it, — (applause,) — in the earnest and 
ardent hope that the cause, which is superior to men, shall receive 
no detriment at my hands. (Cheers, and a voice, " some more ap- 
plause.") You are here to pay a tribute to that man who is to bear 
your standard on to what we hope and believe a triumphant victory. 
(Applause.) You are here to pay a tribute to that young giant of 
the West, who comes from that region where the star of empire 
has already culminated. You come to pay a tribute to that man 
who is not only the representative man of your principles, but the 
representative man of the people — (cheers) — that man who is iden- 
tified in all your interests by his early associations in life, who 
sympathizes justly and truly with the labor of all this broad land, 
himself inured to toil. (Applause.) 

Capacious, comprehensive, a statesman incorruptible, a man 
over whom the shade of suspicion has never cast a reproach. (Con- 
tinued applause.) But what is the mission, my friends, that is 
committed to our hands ? It is to bring back your government to 
the position, to bring back the principles and practices of its fathers 
and founders, and administer in the light of their wisdom. It is to 
purge the government of its corruptions, — of its corruptions, com- 
pared with which those in any other administration pale into utter 
insignificance. (Cheers, and a voice, " three cheers for the flick 



12G LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

and rule.") It is to maintain the integrity of the Union, with the 
just rights of all the States ; and, while the just rights of all the 
States are maintained, it is also to maintain that States shall not 
interfere in territories outside of their own jurisdiction. (Ap- 
plause.) 

And it is to give new aids to commerce across the trackless 
ocean, — it is to foster and give new life to the industry of this broad 
land. What is it but the industry of our country that upholds your 
government ? What is it but the labor of your country that spreads 
out your canvass on the distant sea ? What is it but labor that 
delves in your mines, and toils in your workshops, and upholds the 
government under which you live ? (Cheers.) Who is there that 
should receive the fostering care and kind regards of the govern- 
ment if it be not the man that toils, and adds by his industry to the 
wealth of the republic ? This is the mission that the Republican 
party, under the guidance of Heaven, are to perform and discharge. 
(Cheers.) They are to do that, and then they will transmit to 
those who shall come after them our government unimpaired, and 
it will remain, and remain forever, the land where the oppressed of 
every clime and land, of every creed, may come and receive the 
protection of our lands and our liberty regulated by law. (" Hip, 
hip, hurrah," and cheers.) 

SPEECH OF MR. CAMPBELL, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

After music from the band, Mr. Campbell, member of Con- 
gress, from Pennsylvania, was introduced. He said : — 

I claim the right to express the sentiment of my section upon 
the nomination recently made at Chicago. (Cheers.) I want to 
say, first, my State is Union-loving and conservative to the core. 
She believes that the mission of this great republic, as originated 
by the fathers, is one of peace and liberty, but that this Democratic 
party now in power has been arrayed against liberty, the Revolu- 
tionary precepts rights, and the interests of the country. (Applause 
and laughter.) She has therefore looked around her for some other 
man, and has heard of a citizen of Kentucky, born on her soil, a 
pioneer of the Western wilderness, — she has heard of the nomina- 
tion of Abraham Lincoln with unfeigned gratification. (Applause.) 
She believes that Abraham Lincoln is the man for the time, aid 
marches breast up with the advancing wave of civilization and lib- 



OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 127 

erty. He then went on to eulogize the platform upon which he 
stands, which he (Mr. Campbell) said protected the iron interests of 
Pennsylvania, and would build up her manufacturers, and pledged 
the Keystone State to the nominees of the Chicago Convention. 

From the Washington House the band and the attending 
crowd proceeded up Pennsylvania Avenue, five hundred strong, 
and thence up Eighth street to the quarters of Senator Trum- 
bull, opposite the General Post-omce. About half the crowd 
were Democrats. 

SPEECH OF SENATOR TRUMBULL. 

Senator Trumbull being introduced to the meeting, addressed it 
in an earnest and somewhat lengthy speech in support of the great 
work done for the Republican party at Chicago. He had known 
Abraham Lincoln for twenty years. A native of Kentucky, he 
was brought over when an infant into Indiana. Thence, with his 
axe on his shoulder, he went into Illinois, where he hewed his way 
into distinction. He studied and for a time practised the business 
of a land surveyor, then he entered into the study of the law, and 
rapidly rose to the high distinction of the ablest lawyer in the 
Northwest. 

They call him " Old Abe.," said Mr. Trumbull, and yet he is in 
the prime of life, — about fifty-one years old. He is a giant in 
stature, six feet three inches high, and every inch a man. (A 
voice — "Not high enough to be President.") Yes, high enough to 
be President, and he will be President. (Hurrah.) He is a giant, 
and without the prefix of " Little" to it, (Hurrah.) A giant in in- 
tellect as well as in stature. (A voice — " Where is Harper's Ferry.") 
I tell you, my friends, that the prairies of Illinois are all ablaze to- 
night with the fires of enthusiasm. (Cries of " Is Fred Douglas in 
there?" and "Abe Lincoln is the man who met Stephen A. 
Douglas.") Yes, and he was defeated. (" Three cheers for 
Douglas!" and they were given by the outsiders of the crowd, 
" Three groans for Lincoln," and they were given. The insiders 
then demanded " Three cheers for Lincoln! " and they were given 
with a will.) 

Mr. Trumbull then explained, that in the Illinois contest of 1858, 
while Douglas carried the legislature, Lincoln had I he popular vote 



128 LIFE OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 

by four thousand majority ; and he will more than double it in 
November, — (Oh, gas!" "Where is John Brown?") — and I tell 
you he will make a clean sweep of every State west of the Alle- 
ghanies. (" How about poor old Seward ? ") Mr. Seward is a 
statesman and a patriot, and his whole heart is with our great 
cause. 

Mr. Trumbull continued for sometime longer, amidst frequent 
interruptions from the outsiders, cheers for Douglas, inquiries for 
John Brown, &c, &c. Finally, Mr. Trumbull called for " Three 
cheers for Lincoln and Hamlin," which were heartily given, fol- 
lowed by " Three for Trumbull." 

SPEECH OF MR. WASHBURNE, OF ILLINOIS — ATTACK ON THE 
MEETING. 

Hon. Elihu Washburne, of Illinois, was next introduced to the 
meeting, and in a bold, clear, strong voice was entering upon a eu- 
logistic speech of the life and character, public and private, of Mr. 
Lincoln, when a few stray brickbats and stones fell in among his 
audience, from the direction of the Patent Office, when instantly 
there was a general stampede in the opposite direction, the musicians 
of the band being among the first to take to their heels. The 
steadfast Republicans, immediately, about the doorstep stood their 
ground, and presently Major Berrett's police came up and told the 
speaker to go on, for that the meeting would be protected. 

Mr. Washburne meantime maintained his stand upon the stoop, 
and in a few minutes, comparative order being restored, he resumed 
his speech, saying, that when the time had come that a public meet- 
ing on public affairs, could not be held in the federal capital with- 
out a riotous disturbance, it was time for a sweeping reform which 
would drive these lawless parasites from the footstool of power. 
Mr. Washburne concluded with a high culogium of Mr. Hamlin, 
when the meeting, after a round or two of applause, quietly 
dispersed. 



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